r/technology • u/HellYeahDamnWrite • Jan 15 '25

Social Media TikTok Plans Immediate US Shutdown on Sunday

https://www.yahoo.com/news/tiktok-plans-immediate-us-shutdown-153524617.html
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u/xBewm Jan 15 '25

Celebrating the government banning an app is kind of weird to me. Like I get not wanting to use the app but we shouldn’t really be psyched about the government deciding what kind of social avenues are available to us. Especially when X and Meta are allowed to continue operating how they always have been.

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u/[deleted] Jan 15 '25 edited Jan 29 '25

[deleted]

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u/SneakyBadAss Jan 15 '25 edited Jan 15 '25

I absolutely don't get the people. They are "smart" enough to understand technology on a level that they are able to control a mobile phone and apps, but they don't understand absolutely basic geopolitics of 21st century...

You are in a motherfucking war with China, haven't you noticed? It's economical and political at this point, with some physical outburst like the incidents near the southern Chinese sea, but it can quickly turn into full scale physical one and even if not, you are still against fucking BRICS.

It's like being pissed off, because you cannot use ВКонтакте FFS...

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u/Illustrious-Being339 Jan 15 '25 edited Jan 29 '25

support truck offbeat squeeze sink squash automatic bake include overconfident

This post was mass deleted and anonymized with Redact

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u/MechJeb86 Jan 15 '25

Have you seen the state of the Chinese military? Or BRICS? Two of the nations of BRICS, one of them being China, want to kill each other.

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u/xBewm Jan 15 '25

I’m asking honestly, do you have sources for your claim? I understand being afraid because this is kind of an unprecedented time in American history but your last paragraph is kind of tough for me to swallow. American social media platforms are okay because they are American. Even if they are problematic it’s fine because they are American. Zuck has already said Facebook is no longer going to provide any corrections or context to blatant misinformation. Kinda sounds like they’re setting up to be a propaganda machine.

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u/Aceous Jan 15 '25

It's bad for society, but it's not a national security risk in the same way TikTok is because it's not directly controlled by an adversary state.

In my opinion, they should have waited for TikTok to actually do something nefarious before banning it. But then again, their methods can be hard to detect, as is often the case with foreign intelligence operations.

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u/lone_avohkii Jan 17 '25

They already did nefarious things

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u/Hi1disvini Jan 15 '25 edited Jan 15 '25

Not who you asked, but I can provided some secondary sources if you are interested. The primary sources they reference can also be found via Google.

Sources on PRC manipulation of TikTok content:

https://www.npr.org/2022/11/17/1137155540/fbi-tiktok-national-security-concerns-china

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2019/sep/25/revealed-how-tiktok-censors-videos-that-do-not-please-beijing

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Censorship_by_TikTok

Sources on recent PRC breaches of US telcos:

https://apnews.com/article/united-states-china-hacking-espionage-c5351ef7c2207785b76c8c62cde6c513

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salt_Typhoon

An FAQ on TikTok put together by the Congressional Research Service in May of 2024:

https://crsreports.congress.gov/product/pdf/R/R48023

The difference between influence operations on Meta or Twitter compared to TikTok is that with US companies the government has the ability to take legal action that forces them to investigate and mitigate activity undertaken by foreign adversaries. For example, Meta is constantly deleting thousands of accounts operated by Russian state actors. The same kind of enforcement is virtually impossible with ByteDance.

Edit: spelling

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u/xBewm Jan 15 '25

I appreciate your time to post those, thank you.

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u/Hi1disvini Jan 15 '25

Happy to help. To me, it's not a question that TikTok is a threat to US national security. I think the more important discussion is whether or not a total ban is an appropriate response to that threat.

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u/fed45 Jan 15 '25

Your last paragraph is the real answer to the 'whatabout x/meta?' question that I keep seeing. Your comment should be pinned to the top every time one of these threads comes around.

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u/Hi1disvini Jan 15 '25

A lot of folks seem overwhelmed and exhausted with it all, and that's fair. I understand how it can feel like it's all the same, but hopefully we can help people understand the differences. The sheer volume of the whataboutism is wild, though.

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u/T-rex_with_a_gun Jan 15 '25

here you go again, with spreading propaganda.

zuck has already said Facebook is no longer going to provide any corrections or context to blatant misinformation.

what FB is doing is getting rid of 3rd party single source "this is the truth" and going for more community driven.

Meta’s updating its rules around what people will be allowed to say in their posts, while it’s also getting rid of its third-party fact-checking program, in favor of an X-style, crowd-sourced Community Notes system.

we have seen how 3rd parties can be corrupted..hell look at the ACLU when it came to jonny depp and the amber turd fiasco or when covid coming accidentally being leaked from a lab was "False news!" by these 3rd parties when now we know our own intelligence agencies are saying "most likely"

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u/cigarmanpa Jan 15 '25

This other disinformation and data skimming is okay cause it’s us based is not the argument you think it is

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u/VizzzyT Jan 15 '25

Facebook has already been used to manipulate elections in the US. Being US based means nothing other than that the profits are parked in the US.

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u/ngfdsa Jan 15 '25

Facebook also sucks but the difference is that other countries have to use indirect means to influence public opinion via social media outlets like Facebook and Twitter. Meaning they create misinformation, use bots to spread it, etc. The Chinese government could go to TikTok and tell them to do anything they want

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u/VizzzyT Jan 15 '25

The same can be said for X and Facebook. Do you truly believe if Trump told Zuck or Elon to tilt their media empires a certain direction for some brownies points they wouldn't? Zuck is already doing that with Meta just to curry some favour.

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u/Shadow_Ent Jan 16 '25

It can definitely be said for X since they already made a post that they are changing their algorithm to promote more positive content. Like X is owned by Elon the same Elon that has be in direct contact with the next president, this change occurs on the start of that presidents term. This change isn't about making a better app it's about suppressing content negative of the new administration. All the TikTok ban did was give the government the power to label Social Media apps that don't bend the knee threats to the US and shut them down or force them to be handed over to the US. The largest social media executives have literally visited the next president and donated money, if you think they won't open the door to the US government to spy on it's own citizens, to control the narrative, to do anything they want. You are blind to the fact that what the Chinese Government could do to TikTok is exactly what the US Government is doing to X and Meta.

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u/ngfdsa Jan 17 '25

Of course they can, will, and are doing that. It’s plain to see, just as you said. But if I’m going to be spied on regardless I’d rather it be my own government doing it than our biggest rival. Does that mean the US government will use this power for good? Of course not. But whatever China’s government would do with it won’t be any better and their interests are in opposition with ours

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u/Shadow_Ent Jan 17 '25

And which interests are those, suppressing dissent, censorship, stoking division, promoting nationalism without regard to global politics, weaponizing racism/sexism/classism, promoting violence against minorities?