this post was submitted on 20 Apr 2024
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They're owned by the CCP (and before you say they're not, the ByteDance C-suite is basically all current Chinese citizens and the headquarters is in Beijing).
Businesses and people do not have rights in the way most westerners are used to. Assume anything out of China or generally owned by Chinese companies is a direct arm of the CCP ... because even if it isn't today, the CCP can unilaterally throw down an order from the top and take control of the company/have them do whatever they want or the leaders replaced.
So are American companies that are basically all Americans in the C-Suite owned by the US Government?
Even if what you were saying was true, the common sense approach is to ban the trading of data internationally. Then TikTok can tell Beijing to pound sand if they tried anything. Instead we have this fear mongering racist bullshit being touted.
Oh you silly! The American corporations ARE the government at this point. But your point is valid either way. I don't think it's just about racism though. I think they want our data back in the US market. None of our corporate overlords can dip their greedy little fingers into TikTok data and that is very upsetting for them.
Yeah, I'm at a loss as to how people are buying this. They're being asked to support this bill on less than zero evidence, just reporters breathlessly repeating hypothetical stuff. It's just so obviously a called hit by our political donor class.
It's because they've just decided they hate it/it's just full of dancing teenagers for years now and nothing will ever change their minds. Which is wild because if it ever was that I never saw it and I've been on it for like 5-6 years at least. Everyone just bought into our gov saying they're worried about propaganda/security when my page is mostly filled with memes, gaming stuff, gardening, recipes, cats, news, and now a bunch of people pissed off about the ban.
What really got me is how easily manipulated lemmy/reddit users were the second time they tried to ban it. Tiktok sent out a notification telling their users they were voting for the ban and offering to help them find their local representatives if they wanted to call them and object to it. As they should that's how democracy is supposed to work isn't it? Immediately they got flooded with calls from people like me telling them that we didn't want the ban. Also immediately, the media started to spin it as a bunch of "vulnerable" teenagers and elderly people were forced or tricked into calling in their confusion... And PEOPLE BELIEVED IT. Just ate it right up. Crazy.
Yeah that was crazy. They asked people to lobby for them, as other companies have done, and suddenly they're brainwashing our youth. Every time this comes up I feel like I'm taking crazy pills just from the sheer pressure of people saying TikTok is malware/spyware/directly controlled; but the evidence they point to is always weak at best. It's like they think TikTok is the Chinese version of the black helicopter secret organization.
Ultimately, yes. The US government can tell Google to report all searches of "I'm a goofy goober!" to them to collect a list of SpongeBob fans.
The same is true of a company like Proton and Swiss law.
The difference is that in the US/Switzerland/Western Democracy there are rights, laws, and courts that limit and check government power and action + open ended elections. Biden cannot just go to Elon Musk and tell him "this is my company now, you WILL report all the goofy goobers." There are a lot of roadblocks to that kind of behavior.
The CCP is a monoculture based around the "National People's Congress". The NPC is effectively the CCP because the CCP picks who is eligible to be part of the NPC https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elections_in_China
The CCP is currently effectively controlled by Xi who has claimed increasing amounts of control over the party: https://journalofdemocracy.org/articles/china-in-xis-new-era-the-return-to-personalistic-rule/
For all intents and purposes, what Xi wants is what happens. There is no court to check him, there is no opposition party to hold him back, and anyone that tries to stand in his way will more than likely be "punished."
This is not racist bull shit. It has nothing to do with Chinese people and everything to do with the CCP.
The trading of data also has very little to do with anything. It's about cutting off a hostile, authoritarian, foreign power from having a direct line to millions of US citizens to push whatever message they want with minimal oversight. The data is surely just icing on the cake for the CCP because they might be able to find some blackmail worthy piece of information in their hoard of metrics and videos for a current or future public figure.
I don't think you understand either ... "Banning" something only works if they care about the law and the CCP does not care at all about US laws. If they want to break them, they will, and they will either get the people that did the job for them back to China or use people that don't know anything/any better as scapegoats. It's the exact same stuff any government would do, international law is imaginary because ultimately nations do not answer to nations except by diplomacy and war.
Lmao. Okay we're done here. You have an outsized idea of nationality, government power, and what's in TikTok data.
You're just naive if you honestly think companies are somehow "above" the nations of their owners or that government power has some real limit beyond what other nations are willing (and able) to punish them over.
It's also pretty naive to assert there's nothing of value in that data, particularly of the blackmail variety. That stupid distasteful video you uploaded and then "deleted" at a teen ... there's no guarantee they don't have it. The location ping your phone made when you were cheating on your spouse and opened TikTok while waiting for your mistress, there's no guarantee they don't have it.
You could even use popular political videos as the basis for evaluating who's more likely to cooperate or believe you following an attack and mix that with geographic data to figure out how to minimize the risk of guerilla fighters. Similarly, you could use the social network graph to figure out how to put pressure on someone.
I mean, social media is honestly nasty in terms of what it can tell you about a society.
That doesn't even begin to touch on the ability to directly manipulate a proprietary content promotion algorithm. You think they can effectively manipulate Facebook? There are no limits to the manipulation they can perform on TikTok and there is no framework for overseeing social media algorithm performance.
Multi national corporations are so beholden to their countries they cheat on their taxes and break any law they can get away with. Including selling data directly to the CCP.
So no. I don't have time or the willpower to argue with someone who thinks international affairs is a video game and everything is tied to countries.
Just because a nation chooses to let things go unnoticed, it does not mean the nation does not have the power.
If the US Govt decides to break up Apple or Google, they are no longer whole; that's the end of it.
Just because the principal at your school let kids break a few rules and some teachers use sick days like vacation days doesn't mean the principal doesn't have power over the kids and teachers.
You're incredibly naive to think the most powerful entities in the world, nation states, are some toothless, harmless play thing that large corporations can "just subvert." That's the video game perspective.
To be clear, China understands this whole thing very well. There's a reason they're trying to kick US tech companies out and it isn't because they're afraid of the tech company itself.
Oh wow. You really just don't know do you? They have to go to court to break up Apple or Google and prove a case. And this isn't a principal on a power trip. You think it's a button press and you call me naive? Jesus wept.
They have to go to court because the western government itself has checks and balances, as I previously stated.
It's entirely within congress's authority to change the law to make it the press of a button. It's not a matter of "whether or not they have the power." It's where or not they allow themselves to exercise the power.
China doesn't have all these roadblocks, especially in the Xi error; it's much closer to an outright dictatorship than it's been in many years.
Ah yes that bit in the Constitution about due process is just for show. Well I'm sure the police agree with you. You'd have a point, if we were having this discussion in China.
Pray tell, how do you think monopoly law works? What do you think due process is?
Like this.
I give up, you're unreachable.
Yes, cite exactly what I said happens and ignore literally everything I'm saying once again ... because "governments are subservient to corporations" and China is a benevolent government no worse than the US except when it doesn't suit your argument.
So sick of CCP shills.
Lmao you said they just do it. There's literally an Anti Trust case going right now. So where's TikTok's day in court?
PLEASE, tell me where I said "they just do it." Give me a quote.
There you go.
"They just do it" is not in there.
Perhaps the confusion stems from that fact that the US Court System is part of the US Government. Explicitly "If the United States congress gives power to the executive branch to break up a company, the executive branch decides to break up a company, and the company is unable to successfully appeal the decision in the courts, they are no longer whole; that's the end of it."
Lmao. Dig that hole deeper. Go look at that Anti-trust suit. Does that look like the government just did it and Apple is appealing? Due process means the government has to prove a case before it deprives you of property. Because we don't live in a Dictatorship.
K.