Tiktok (1 Viewer)

[The Commish]

Yeah, I'm 95% confident that this app is just the Chinese trying to systematically make the youth of America stupid and lower their attention spans.

China clearly playing the long game.

and its working

There's a reason China severely restricts children in the country from consuming the platform.

 

[IvanKaramazov]

Time passed and we know more now.

In all seriousness, you should stop and ask yourself why so many people "knew" that this was Chinese spyware three years ago, and why you're just finding out about it now. What caused you to disregard this information when it was widely available in 2020? Can you think of any other post-2020 examples of the media and government misleading you about any important issues? What does that lead you to conclude about the proper level of trust that you should assign to those institutions today?

 

[The Commish]

Time passed and we know more now.

In all seriousness, you should stop and ask yourself why so many people "knew" that this was Chinese spyware three years ago, and why you're just finding out about it now. What caused you to disregard this information when it was widely available in 2020? Can you think of any other post-2020 examples of the media and government misleading you about any important issues? What does that lead you to conclude about the proper level of trust that you should assign to those institutions today?

Speculations started in 2017/18

 

[IvanKaramazov]

Time passed and we know more now.

In all seriousness, you should stop and ask yourself why so many people "knew" that this was Chinese spyware three years ago, and why you're just finding out about it now. What caused you to disregard this information when it was widely available in 2020? Can you think of any other post-2020 examples of the media and government misleading you about any important issues? What does that lead you to conclude about the proper level of trust that you should assign to those institutions today?

Speculations started in 2017/18

Good point. I don't honestly remember the timeline very well here. I can't even remember whether my first exposure to Tiktok was "Here's a cool new social media service" or "We think this might be spyware operated by a foreign government." That's just always been part of the narrative for as long as I can remember. What I find amazing is people dropping into an old thread and being like "Well, we know more now than we did back then," when other people in this thread were able to see this quite clearly back then. It seems like that would be cause for a little self-reflection. Instead, certain folks seem to be looking for reasons to excuse their aggressive incuriosity around this topic -- and others -- a few years ago.

 

[fatness]

What's known now isnt all that different now than it was when the app came out. We're just transitioning to there being tangible evidence.

Which is why I posted the article.

 

[fatness]

In all seriousness, you should stop and ask yourself why so many people "knew" that this was Chinese spyware three years ago, and why you're just finding out about it now.

"Knew" in quotes means "thought".
Posting any objective information about it which tends to prove or disprove it is a good thing.
Do you disagree?

 

[Jakey]

Yeah, I'm 95% confident that this app is just the Chinese trying to systematically make the youth of America stupid and lower their attention spans.

China clearly playing the long game.

and its working

There's a reason China severely restricts children in the country from consuming the platform.

Does China single out tiktok or is it social media in general?

I would doubt our own good ole US of A apps are much better. Screw the apps, the phones themselves. 10 years ago governments/militaries could use them as homing beacons or worse.

 

[Jakey]

Didn't Ukraine recently kill a couple hundred Russians because their phones were on?

 

[The Commish]

Yeah, I'm 95% confident that this app is just the Chinese trying to systematically make the youth of America stupid and lower their attention spans.

China clearly playing the long game.

and its working

There's a reason China severely restricts children in the country from consuming the platform.

Does China single out tiktok or is it social media in general?

I would doubt our own good ole US of A apps are much better. Screw the apps, the phones themselves. 10 years ago governments/militaries could use them as homing beacons or worse.

Tik Tok is their social media for the most part. There IS another app, I forget the name, that is their "everything" app. They've banned or severely limited things like facebook, twitter, etc but that's over their entire population, not just kids and it's not for the same reasons (IMO). Their rules around tik tok for kids is pretty unique.

 

[The Commish]

Time passed and we know more now.

In all seriousness, you should stop and ask yourself why so many people "knew" that this was Chinese spyware three years ago, and why you're just finding out about it now. What caused you to disregard this information when it was widely available in 2020? Can you think of any other post-2020 examples of the media and government misleading you about any important issues? What does that lead you to conclude about the proper level of trust that you should assign to those institutions today?

Speculations started in 2017/18

Good point. I don't honestly remember the timeline very well here. I can't even remember whether my first exposure to Tiktok was "Here's a cool new social media service" or "We think this might be spyware operated by a foreign government." That's just always been part of the narrative for as long as I can remember. What I find amazing is people dropping into an old thread and being like "Well, we know more now than we did back then," when other people in this thread were able to see this quite clearly back then. It seems like that would be cause for a little self-reflection. Instead, certain folks seem to be looking for reasons to excuse their aggressive incuriosity around this topic -- and others -- a few years ago.

We got security bulletins at WF almost as soon as the app came out. For better or worse, most of the time til now the "concern" was based mostly on educated/logical guesses on our part. There was no real objective evidence raised. It was all supposition (in the mainstream anyway). So yeah, it was obvious to some of us our supposition was going to likely become true, but at that time we were playing in the realm of belief just like everyone else. I don't think I have a problem with posting tangible evidence in this thread as an update though.

At this point, I'm just happy that people are paying attention. That's a huge step. We need to demand MORE out of our politicians and each other regarding this country's cybersecurity and understanding of technology.

 

[Desert_Power]

Yeah, I'm 95% confident that this app is just the Chinese trying to systematically make the youth of America stupid and lower their attention spans.

China clearly playing the long game.

and its working

There's a reason China severely restricts children in the country from consuming the platform.

Does China single out tiktok or is it social media in general?

I would doubt our own good ole US of A apps are much better. Screw the apps, the phones themselves. 10 years ago governments/militaries could use them as homing beacons or worse.

Tik Tok is their social media for the most part. There IS another app, I forget the name, that is their "everything" app. They've banned or severely limited things like facebook, twitter, etc but that's over their entire population, not just kids and it's not for the same reasons (IMO). Their rules around tik tok for kids is pretty unique.

WeChat

 

[The Commish]

Yeah, I'm 95% confident that this app is just the Chinese trying to systematically make the youth of America stupid and lower their attention spans.

China clearly playing the long game.

and its working

There's a reason China severely restricts children in the country from consuming the platform.

Does China single out tiktok or is it social media in general?

I would doubt our own good ole US of A apps are much better. Screw the apps, the phones themselves. 10 years ago governments/militaries could use them as homing beacons or worse.

Tik Tok is their social media for the most part. There IS another app, I forget the name, that is their "everything" app. They've banned or severely limited things like facebook, twitter, etc but that's over their entire population, not just kids and it's not for the same reasons (IMO). Their rules around tik tok for kids is pretty unique.

WeChat

That's it.

And that one has a financial component. People forget at the vey beginning, tiktok did too. They were knocked down a peg

 

[fatness]

I really am surprised by this much resistance to new information. I guess one guy just has some long-running gripes with someone. I did a quick search for TikTok topics, and found 3 of them. 2 were in the PSF and then there was this one which was started in 2020 and was bumped in February 2023 with any objections. I added to it.

What everyone believes is based on what information was available at the time that belief was formed, and is hopefully shaped by further new information. What I posted was new information ---- that ByteDance had basically been caught promising to spend $1.5 billion on sequestering US data at the same time they were using that supposedly-sequestered data to surveil journalists. Information is better than belief.

I assume the attempt to lump me in to a nefarious group bumping threads for nefarious purposes, and the subsequent advice to up my reading skills, was just someone having a bad day.

**** TikTok.

 

[massraider]

Hollywood, music industry brace for a TikTok ban The entertainment industry has become so reliant on TikTok that banning the app could hurt business, industry insiders say

Since the last time the U.S. government considered banning TikTok in 2020, the app has evolved from a social platform supporting a robust ecosystem of content creators and small businesses to an entertainment powerhouse, upending Hollywood power structures and rewriting the rules of the entertainment landscape. A ban now would threaten not the livelihoods of TikTok’s biggest stars and thousands of small businesses, it could deal a massive blow to the entertainment industry, forcing movie studios, record labels, casting directors, Hollywood agents, and actors to radically shift the way they do business.


This is actually a really interesting article on what TIkTok has evolved into, how it's used, stuff I didn't know. But at WaPo framing this as some sort of alarm over what damage the banning of TikTok might mean for the entertainment industry. Really really interesting read otherwise. They are making TV shows for TikTok already? I had no idea.

 

[JohnnyU]

I wonder if we will start seeing a hunched over generation. Looking down at your phone all day is terrible for you, and I'd imagine worse for young people still growing.

I have heard of comedy shows having lockable pouches or something to put a phone in. Joe Rogan often discusses this, and he does it at his shows. It prevents people from recording the shows, but more importantly it makes people pay attention. I'd imagine it gets annoying when you are trying to entertain and people are using their device, or taking pictures. This lockable pouch system seems like a great idea for schools.

Back to tiktok, Kevin Hart is pretty funny on there. His schtick is to always say "I'm doing a tiktok". I wonder if they are paying him?

Why don’t they come up with something that causes devices not to be able to access the internet while on school property? Don’t they do this now in some cars while in motion ?

 

[Courtjester]

I guess I am in the minority. I view TikTok almost daily for recipes, sports betting and Lego stuff and I really don't care if they are tracking me or whatever. This whole ban nonsense is just the US government wanting to monopolize the tracking. Every "smart" item we own has some way of tracking us. Heck, even my Comcast remote has a built in microphone that you can't tell me isn't gathering data.

 

[kodycutter]

I chuckle when I ask Alexa if she wants to see it. (I presume she has)

 

[Desert_Power]

I guess I am in the minority. I view TikTok almost daily for recipes, sports betting and Lego stuff and I really don't care if they are tracking me or whatever. This whole ban nonsense is just the US government wanting to monopolize the tracking. Every "smart" item we own has some way of tracking us. Heck, even my Comcast remote has a built in microphone that you can't tell me isn't gathering data.

Yeah. I really enjoy the app too.

Doesn't really bother me that they are allegedly collecting the same info that Google/Facebook do. It definitely is bothering Facebook and it's lobbyists that Tiktok has a much better algorithm to drive engagement.

 

[IvanKaramazov]

I guess I am in the minority. I view TikTok almost daily for recipes, sports betting and Lego stuff and I really don't care if they are tracking me or whatever. This whole ban nonsense is just the US government wanting to monopolize the tracking. Every "smart" item we own has some way of tracking us. Heck, even my Comcast remote has a built in microphone that you can't tell me isn't gathering data.

The problem is that that it can be simultaneously true that (a) TikTok is Chinese spyware/psy-ops; and (b) the US government wants to ban it because it interferes with its own campaign of internal censorship. Neither side is obviously mistaken.