Comment on House panel unanimously approves bill that could ban TikTok
CeeBee@lemmy.world 8 months agoSo what’s the difference between the CCP getting it for free from Tiktok and paying for it from an “American” corporation?
Whataboutism at its finest.
Maggoty@lemmy.world 8 months ago
That word does not mean what you think it means. In fact throwing China’s human rights record out there like it matters in preventing American consumer data from flowing to China is far closer to whataboutism.
The only thing that matters in stopping American Consumer Data from being collected by the CCP is stopping American Consumer Data from being collected by the CCP.
If that’s your stated goal then you need to hold all the data vendors accountable, not just the scary Chinese one. Because there’s nothing stopping them from selling it to China right now. There’s a whole chain of articles about Facebook and Meta doing this for over a decade. And you’re worried only about Tiktok.
Gee I wonder why that might be?
CeeBee@lemmy.world 8 months ago
And how is this accomplished when the CCP has direct control and direct access to the company that develops the app collecting the data?
Well that’s a massive assumption. Please show me where I said “I’m only worried about TikTok”.
Maggoty@lemmy.world 8 months ago
Obviously it doesn’t. But this doesn’t accomplish that goal. It’s like saying I hate bananas, let’s ban PBJs.
If you want to ban foreign countries collecting data then make that the law and ban TikTok when they break it. And then ban Facebook when they break it. That’s how good legislation is done. This kind of targeted bullshit is just a gift to Musk, Zuckerberg, and whoever runs Google and Apple these days. They’re going to funnel data to the CCP just as fast as they can make a profit from it.
The entire algorithm thing is also bullshit. Facebook has been courting the CCP for advertising for over a decade. To think they won’t use targeted ads for an info op is just fucking naive.
CeeBee@lemmy.world 8 months ago
That’s partially true. But there’s a difference between having access to a dataset vs having direct control over an app, which includes the algorithms and content being shown.
In any case, if it goes through to a full ban, you can still use the app. It just cannot be distributed on any app stores. It would still be possible to sideload it (on Android).
And that will discourage a lot of people from using it, which would be the point.
I also would like to see any reports or studies showing China buying data from other social media platforms.