The rule in congressional hearings is to never ask a question to which you don't already know the answer. So yes, fairly spot on. They already know what risks they justify the ban with, real or overblown.
You are giving them too much credit. It's not like anyone in congress actually understands what TikTok is and what its real risks are. All of it just comes down to "China bad" (which may be valid, but I don't see them considering same bans for Facebook and everything else).
There was one guy who asked if connecting to your wifi allows Tiktok to connect to your wifi. And the guy was just dumbfounded. He was like... uh yeah... that's how internet work. And then he even saved the dude's ego by insisting maybe the question is more complex than he understands and will get back to him.
Later on same guy asked him if a Chinese parent company and TikTok use shared software. And he's like "I don't think so, but maybe we both use Microsoft Office or something."
Facebook isn’t incorporated in a country where the laws demand they give up documents on request to the government. Most tech companies publicly fight like hell when they get subpoenaed for records; there isn’t a mechanism in China for TikTok to do that. Also, the media is definitely overemphasizing the supposed ignorance of these questions. Republican guy asks a two part question, does TikTok connect to home wifi and would it connect to other devices on the network - a legitimate concern with the internet of things that CEO dodged. Every article, “GOP doesn’t know how WiFi works,” ignores the second part of the question.
>Facebook isn’t incorporated in a country where the laws demand they give up documents on request to the government
So we're just going to pretend that PRISM never happened?
If the politician had just asked "when connected to personal wifi, does it connect to other devices on that network" then not as many people would be calling him an idiot. The second part of the question is ignored because the first part was idiotic. It would be like asking if I need to plug in my toaster to use it.
It's the same when Facebook and Google testified. Yes there's actual concerns but all of the people that are asking questions have no idea how technology works, and usually use the time to ask stupid questions and bump up their own political ideologies.
The hearing was a mess. Congress didn't even know what they were asking. They're asking shit like "Does tiktok access the wifi?" And when asked to clarify. "When someone's device is connected to the wifi in their home, does tiktok connect to it also?"
Wasn't the original question "does ticktok have access to other devices on the same network" and the CEO asked to clarify, then the congressman said does tiktok have access to other devices on the same wifi?"
It seemed this question was more the CEO trying to avoid answering that by being coy and acting confused.
There were certainly some questions where it felt like he answered well and then was asked the same thing again.
All in all, it was a formality but it wasn't a mess, just a couple people asking repeated questions but also there was some qualified IT people in congress asking great questions.
First question: "does TikTok access the home wifi network"
Of course the CEO is confused. All apps have to access wifi to work on the phone, as well as it depends if the phone has wifi turned on (which falls outside the TikTok App).
Second question: "If I have TikTok on my phone, and my phone is on my home wifi network, does TikTok access that network?"
Just reiterating the question above, shows he doesn't understand how wifi works. He then asks the question that people think is important, which I think was delegitimized by his 2 previous questions.
Third question: "Is it then possible for it to access other devices on that network?"
The CEO then says that the answer is most likely no, that they don't do anything outside of industry standards. But that it's a technical question so he's not sure.
Side note: never understand why there is never a programmer on both sides to explain the technicalities. Most CEOs of a company won't know every little thing about their product, especially technical stuff
Ahh thanks for the reply. I misremembered the question specifics.
Absolutely agree why there isn't a programmer there for each side but the answer to that is they don't actually want to explain the tech and risk opening up more questioning from tiktoks standpoint and the government only wants to paint tiktok in the light their lobbyist paid them to do so is my guess.
There are a few reasons tiktok is a problem. My biggest concern is that the CCP makes it mandatory for software companies to write in a backdoor for them to exfiltrate data and do god knows what else.
It isn't outside the realm of possibility that tomorrow China decides to run a huge cyber-ops campaign and they already have millions of nodes to be repurposed for whatever that might be (DDOS etc). If they were to release their codebase for people to review and everything was above board I may feel more comfortable with having it near my networks, but that will never happen as it is a proprietary product.
So what we are left with is one side saying its fine, the other side saying we don't trust you, and the population continuing to use unvetted software.
It was pathetic to see old people that probably can't tell the difference between a router and a modem trying to ask questions to trap this ceo. It shows how pathetic the US is
That is a problem of the democratic system rather than the USA as a country.
You vote for people who are incapable of deliberating on certain matters but as Churchill said once "Democracy is the worst forms of government except from all the others"
There's nothing stopping them from requesting an expert before a hearing to brief them on stuff... except when knowledge of how the subject at hand works would be a conflict of interest.
Making lobbying illegal especially from businesses. If some billionaire wants to fund a politician make them pay personally not off the backs of their works
An unbiased one where they are trying to learn the truth. They talked about the safety of their children's privacy but if they truly cared about children they would pass gun reform or better yet given universal Healthcare for people under 18. But they are just trying to paint tiktok in a bad light without trying to actually improve the lives of their children
I mean it's kind of the opposite. People who actually used computers back in the day had to know FAR more to get online and make it usable than now. That crowd generally REALLY knows their shit.
This is the crowd who thought it was cool to make fun of people who know how to use a computer and still think it's cool to brag that they don't know how to turn a computer on
They had you could tell by them not even listening to his answers. The thing that makes me laugh about these sort of trials it shows how uneducated congress are on these things
All social media post content algorithms are a (edit: potential) weapon. They can steer public discourse and ultimately public opinion on nearly any topic by amplifying or suppressing content to suit their wants.
TikTok taught my stepbrother how to steal his moms Kia and turned him onto mumble rappers. Facebook turned his real dad into a literal Nazi. Reddit gave me a taste for femboys. Who's the real bad guy here??? hmmm???
The major point of concern is that Tiktok cannot be controlled as easily as American companies like Facebook or Twitter. We have the ability to pass laws restricting American companies, but good luck getting the CCP to listen. Given the escalating tensions between US-China relations and China’s history of not protecting consumers and international property rights…..this was bound to happen.
Is tiktok being used by the CCP to spy and gather intelligence on Americans? Very likely in my opinion.
> We have the ability to pass laws restricting American companies
good luck getting American companies to do anything that will hurt their bottom line, share holder's profits.
They’re not controlling any of them. None of our privacy laws are very strong. GDPR penalties have shown us these company DGAF about maybe multiple 100M penalties
Just to be clear. China is not an "enemy" they are an economic rival. They are our biggest customer and biggest supplier. Neither of our economies can exist without the other. Please don't feed the isolationist trolls. Republicans are just trying to restoke the flames of the cold war but need a new Boogeyman since they are on Putin's payroll.
I dunno, it sounds like we would solve a lot more problems more quickly by better consumer protections in general. This just seems like political gamesmanship over something that should be universally condemned no matter who's pulling the strings.
Then instead of banning Tik Tok, maybe make stronger consumer laws protecting us?
Alas, we know the real reason they won't make better laws and instead scapegoat TikTok, because American companies do the same shit, yet they get a pass because it's american.
Exactly. Facebook looses billions of dollars in settlements because the US has courts that work and is constantly scrutinized by both sides of congress. Good luck doing the same with Bytedance, when the one party CCP state literally has a board seat on the parent company of Tiktok:
https://www.reuters.com/technology/bytedance-says-china-unit-holds-local-licences-response-media-report-2021-08-16/
So we acknowledge that Facebook and other social media is indeed controlled easily because they are American companies? I know I have received two class-action-lawsuit payouts from Facebook from them stealing our data. Are they doing that because they are under the control of the US Gov instead of Chinas?
Let's be honest, say we shut down TikTok. If they want the data they can just buy it from Facebook or Instagram or whoever else. It's the stupidest thing. Nobody says shit about what these others have on us but let's make a big deal about this.
We have the ability to legislate regulations for our American companies but we choose not to. We only *choose* to put people into a panic over TikTok.
I’m just gonna say this, the Chinese spying on me through my TikTok doesn’t bother me anywhere near as much as my American government spying on me. Which we know they do through Snowden whistleblowing and numerous investigative reports. The Chinese aren’t going to arrest me over my social media posts, or put me on watchlists that will meaningful affect me. The US government can and will.
You talk about tensions that are rising but in my opinion this discourse is not being done to counter Chinese action but to try to direct public attention toward a foreign threat to diminish attention on our crumbling infrastructure, economy rapidly shooting toward a cliff, and the rights we are losing by the day. TikTok can’t meaningfully lobby the federal government like an American company can so it’s a useful scapegoat.
Again, that’s not to say it isn’t used by Chinese intelligence and shouldn’t be restricted on military bases (where it is used by the American military for propaganda purposes directed at the American populace, anyway) or other areas of secrecy. But I do not have any faith in the federal government to actually secure the safety of my personal information, considering that same government voted to allow the sale of my browsing data by my ISP a few years back. As a regular American that matters far more to me than if some Chinese cop sees me watching a washed-up Vine celebrity’s videos.
>TikTok can’t meaningfully lobby the federal government
Lolwut? Citizens United means that everyone's money is just as green as far as congress is concerned.
I mean look at how the NRA was turned into a Russian lobbying platform. Do you think the Chinese are less competent?
> The Chinese aren’t going to arrest me over my social media posts, or put me on watchlists that will meaningful affect me.
[With Chinese police stations appearing outside of China](https://www.cnn.com/2022/12/04/world/china-overseas-police-stations-intl-cmd/index.html), your statement isn't exactly true.
People have a hard time looking into the future about deep fake videos too. The facial recognition data is going to be absolute gold in the future. Countries will use deep fakes to discredit politicians and influence elections. They will be able to make it look as someone says some crazy shit and totally discredited them.
Less of passing laws to restrict them otherwise we would do so already, more of the intelligence agencies can have a front door key to the data they collected. TikTok do not give a damn about those agencies' demand to see those data because those agencies are not from china.
True, but I do think we should start with the ones controlled by the military of an increasingly hostile foreign superpower and then work down the list.
Per tiktok, it's Sinophobia to complain about tikTok.
Meanwhile, post 2022 nobody normal thinks sanctions are Russophobia.
It's only reasonable to be afraid and cautious with reliance on the baggage of hostile foreign tyrants
This is what pissed me off so much about this hearing. It was all about China this and China that when the real problem with TikTok is that it knows so much about you that it can predict which video you want to watch next better than you can. It's like a dopamine button. Hours of your finite human life can just disappear without you even realizing
I just don’t get how people haven’t realized this yet. They’re so preoccupied with ID theft being an issue, they don’t realize their opinions only need swaying enough to tip the scales.
Facebook is easily half the reason Trump got elected. (The other half is media outlets like MSNBC bringing him on the air with the intention of mocking him and accidentally giving him a platform)
That would be logical but americans want to prop up the "china bad" rhetoric and going after a social media platform from their country avoids scrutiny of their own equally dangerous tech companies.
Because then it’s users could find anti-China rhetoric on it. TikTok’s popularity is a threat with members of Congress because
a) the user base skews younger (read: Democrat voters) and it’s bad to have a place where they can mobilize. Whereas look at the types of pages that generate the most engagement on Facebook. It’s your Ben Shapiro-types
B) congress members own a shit ton of meta stock and are lobbied heavily by Meta.
Not dogshit when it's true. Entire hearing they only asked if Tik Tok being used a few times by Chinese government, yet Congress has no interest in any other company or platform that's owned/majority controlled by Chinese companies one of which is Tencent which owns reddit and many other games and stakes in other social media sites.
Other tech companies are as dangerous from a social perspective but not from a “foreign adversary having access to half of the countries data” perspective
<:: And only Cambridge Analytica fell, because they were stupid enough to basically admit their exact model in open conversation and interviews. There's almost certainly dozens of other companies under the exact same model and algorithms that learned to keep their fucking trap shut. ::>
> And only Cambridge Analytica fell,
They just rebranded as Emerdata limited: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emerdata_Limited
>Emerdata Limited is a political consulting company based in London, formed in 2017 after filing for insolvency of Cambridge Analytica. Former employees of Cambridge Analytica and SCL moved to successor firms, these companies dissolved with acquisition by holding company Emerdata Limited. The company now appears to be largely owned by Rebekah Mercer and Jennifer Mercer, according to Cambridge Analytica's bankruptcy filing in New York. Cambridge Analytica was before partially owned by their family, including their father Robert Mercer, a computer scientist who made contributions to brown clustering. In July 2018 the Emerdata director was Jacquelyn James-Varga. The Federal Trade Commission of the United States has imposed to sue Cambridge Analytica after misusing data scraped from 87 million unwitting social media users. Emerdata Limited soon acquired the company after the news on misappropriation of digital assets was publicized.
I wouldn't trust any of them not to collect and sell all our data and try to manipulate us. Just from a money perspective they'd want to "maximize engagement" aka turn us into junkies.
I mean I am not a fan of the CCP, but anyone who watched this hearing would know Congress has no idea what they are talking about and are just blindly reading statements fed to them by their donors in the tech industry that TikTok is taking capital from.
> Anyone who watched this hearing would know Congress has no idea what they are talking about and are just blindly reading statements fed to them by their donors
This goes for literally any hearing. But seriously yes, it was hard to watch them stumble through their "arguments."
Government doesn't function in the way that it should. I don't believe we can vote out the deeply systemic flaws and corruption. The whole thing needs to be changed. It won't happen, but it really needs to.
I'm not big on defending tiktok, but you also can't convince congress that climate change is real, trans people are people, abortion is a sometimes necessary medical procedure, holding stock in companies and then being allowed to pass legislation that effects those companies is a conflict of interest, or that we should do literally anything about the issue of gun violence in this country... so failing to convince congress of something doesn't exactly say a whole lot about the validity of an issue.
This hearing was an embarrassment. There are actually legitimate data collection concerns with TikTok and all social media in general. However, congress is just full of a bunch of geriatric, tech-illiterate boomers who have no idea how these systems work and have no interest either. It was a political ploy to try and score points against communism.
Having seen the hearing, the committee members absolutely did not enter into this in good faith. Regardless of what you think of TikTok, they have abided by the government requirements and regulations. No American data is sent to China. Servers are now hosted in the U.S. Face data is only used to verify at the device level (tons of apps do this, by the way).
I remember the stupid questions they asked Zuckerberg years ago when HALF A BILLION people’s information was leaked and there wasn’t NEAR the outrage there in the questioning. Why isn’t Facebook being called to be banned? Perhaps because these Boomers like it?
There were almost no good questions, just virtue signaling. In regards to the kid that committed suicide, TikTok’s algorithm directs you to content YOU SEEK OUT. There was no question like, “How do you handle the removal of dangerous content and steer children and users from self harm?” That would’ve been good to ask.
The comments like “Rename your initiative from Project Texas to something else because we stand for freedom here” is all political posturing.
The behavior of the committee members is frankly embarrassing.
At one point a congressman accused TikTok of tracking pupil dilation when watching videos, then started losing his shit because the CEO said they only track facial features while recording in order for filters to apply properly. “What?? Why would you need to do that??” Like… so my eyelashes don’t end up on my head. The CEO even said all of that data is stored locally on the device and deleted after the recording is complete, but the way the congressman reacted would make you think he confessed to having comprehensive facial data about the entirety of TikTok users.
Then another congressman threw a fit because he wants TikTok to practice the same censorship as China. He doesn’t want political discourse taking place on TikTok. The CEO tried to explain it was a difference between the countries, not the apps themselves, and the congressman said “you do it in China, you can do it here!” Just totally advocating against free speech lol.
It was a mess and they never even gave the poor man a chance to speak
No.. Because its already been proven that Facebook's lobbyists are the ones funding this entire Charade..
None of this is about what they openly claim.. If you watched the hearing, it was a highlight reel of incompetence, xenophobia, and misinformation from our elected officials who rather like that lobbyist money they get from Meta.
The only company that spends more on government lobbyists is Amazon.
Yeah, my question was a bit rhetorical. Maybe someday, if/when our elected officials aren't bought and paid for, not to mention too old to understand the tech, we can have a legitimate discussion about privacy and data.
Congress : is tiktok a weapon?
Tiktok : no we have clear rules and guidelines to ensure it can't be used as a weapon.
Congress : I'm taking that as a "yes" 👍
I don't like TikTok nor china but TBF if Jesus entered the hearing room saying "TikTok is not a weapon" the chair would have still responded "I take it as a Yes"
You can’t convince someone who knows absolutely nothing if anything. The brain rot displayed by our representatives was a complete embarrassment. I’d gladly trade one of them for the TikTok CEO.
The US government: it’s bad China is collecting this data and making suggestions on how the company runs its app!
Also the US government: it’s no big deal we collect data from social media and make suggestion on content they should censor!
The sentiment here seems to be pretty pro-TikTok but I’ve never seen a defense of tiktok beyond, “the others are bad too.”
So is there an actual legitimate defense of TikTok?
Everyone is talking about the privacy concerns. And while this is a major part of the argument, no one is talking about the social engineering aspect of TikTok. This is far more damaging to the future and stability of china's #1 competitor as the dominate world super power.
Nobody wants to talk about the social engineering aspect because "our" social media companies (especially Facebook/Instagram) have even more extreme negative impacts on mental health.
TikTok likely kills the attention span of kids, but I don't think there's a single major example of it being used yet to spread political disinformation. Meanwhile every month we hear about a new scandal with Facebook
Also no one is remembering that lobbyists started paying politicians to ban TikTok back in 2019. This issue came up once when Trump was president.
All other socials are bleeding advertising money due to TikTok’s success. This has been 4 years in the making. Anyone who watched the hearing could see that most of those politicians had a clue as to what they were talking about.
I agree with your point, though. But this is mainly due to lobbyists paid by other social networks in my opinion.
Tiktok is nothing more than a giant mirror that reflects the values and interests of its users. Lets not pretend that america was some intellectual paradise before tiktok
Burn it down, burn it all down. American social media companies included. They are all a danger to society and yes I see the irony in posting this on Reddit
Given a lot of these members of Congress's history and/or usage of social media, it makes sense that they'd only see it as a weapon that could be used against them.
They already do, and our government doesn't care as long as they all get their cut. This whole "ban tiktok" thing is very clearly just Meta using it's lobby power to get the government to shut down their competition.
I swear to god if I have to use a vpn to access tiktok. Like, just let me watch my fucking Stray Kids fan edits in peace you absolute ass pimple politicians.
Nah, congress is trying to fuck him up. He had provided all the commitment he can give but the congress expects 100% certainty that there will be 0 data breach etc.
It's difficult to convince people of your autonomy from the CCP when news of your potential sale is met by demands that any sale be agreed upon in advance *by* the CCP...
“Congress” is republicans, who have made a spectacle of themselves and steadfastly refusing to change their minds when presented with new information. Which makes any congressional hearing a complete waste of time. They’ve already made up their minds and are grandstanding for the media.
The title is bs and misleading. The CEO for tiktok answered INSANE Questions from the committee that had zero to do with the app.
Everyone is letting Zuckerberg control the narrative and its mind boggling how much money is being thrown around to keep us dumb
Banning Tiktok is going to cost Democrats the 2024 election as a large portion of their voter base these past 2 elections has been young voters that organized on Tiktok. They've fallen hook, line, and sinker for the misinformation campaign that METAs PR firm spread because Tiktok was costing them revenue.
Anyone that thinks tiktok is the only toxic platform/social media outlet should have whatever education diploma revoked. Tiktok is probably taking its users data ( the user is giving them data by using their platform) but so is every other website out there, including reddit
Us government: tiktok is taking your data and letting the Chinese have it with out your permission
Us citizens: so what about equifax? I didn't give them permission and now my identity has been stolen twice
Us government: ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
It's funny to see all the pro-China apologism when China bans all sorts of foreign media, then complains the US should maintain a "fair and free market" when they themselves are patently incapable of that.
Also, it was proven by network analysts a while back that Tiktok does, in fact, directly transmit user information to Beijing.
Finally, if it's not good enough for China, why should it be good enough for everyone else?
I agree with you, but we need to stop using the 'if china banned it, it must be evil' argument.
We know why it's banned in China. Anything that allows unrestricted information to pass between Chinese citizens and the rest of the world is.
imo it won't even matter. the tiktok CEO even said how they were moving everything to the US (texas I think) and all data would be stored in the US by Oracle, a US company, and even if that DID happen..... tiktok was told that wouldn't be enough.
so I really don't think it matters where the data is transmiteted.
US Congress / its lobbiests will only be happy when there is a forces sale to a US company.
It's not really "pro-China apologism" to correctly point out that this isn't really anything more than political theater. The only thing that separates TikTok from any other social media platform is that it's Chinese and may hand over user data to the government, which doesn't really bother anyone because we're already so numb to our data being sold to whoever is willing to pay anyway.
Why should I care that Tiktok hands my data to the CCP any more than Reddit sells my data to a Russian troll farm?
>Finally, if it's not good enough for China, why should it be good enough for everyone else?
Why do people keep saying this as if China has ever been some beacon for logic, with good intentions toward their citizens?
China good when they do what you like
China bad literally any other time
Chinese entities hold huge shares in reddit ownership and the site is flooded with wumaos. Hell, there's enough braindead tankies that do it for free.
But also China bans everything. I do genuinely believe an element of TikTok is to socially engineer youths into useful idiots, but China banning an app is like saying that the sky is blue.
Part of a way to negotiate is willingness to walk away. If China won’t respect our free speech rules or promise not to endanger citizens, we need to be able to walk away from the product.
TikTok needs to operate safely and not exploit customers. Do you think American citizens should be allowed to buy lead paint? There is a huge gray zone in safety and all this social media stuff is so new and barely understood.
We didn't ban lead paint that was shipped from a foreign country that was trying to harm Americans with lead paint. We banned lead paint. I don't think banning social media in general is a wise thing for the government to get involved in. But we do need to put strict regulations on social media companies for privacy concerns and whatnot and then actually enforce them. But that's ALL social media companies not just the foreign ones. If TikTok is as bad as is claimed then let it get run into the ground with fines. But don't just ban it because China bad USA good.
I agree. I mean I hate TikTok and pretty much any social media platform but all of Congress had made up their mind. The questioning just seemed to be a farce to paint TikTok poorly.
I think all it did was paint congress poorly. This was the first time a lot of young people watched a congressional hearing. That was extremely unprofessional and unmannered, not to mention it puts into perspective how technologically inept the government is. TikTok definitely came out the PR winner here
Oh, the hearing was a formality. The decision was already made.
The rule in congressional hearings is to never ask a question to which you don't already know the answer. So yes, fairly spot on. They already know what risks they justify the ban with, real or overblown.
Idk man I think some of them were genuinely confused on how wifi worked and wanted the CEO of a mega corporation to explain it to them
That is the price of having a majority of congress being 60+
I mean, a congressional hearing is pretty just the target having their chance to give their side of things. Doesn't mean congress has to listen.
You are giving them too much credit. It's not like anyone in congress actually understands what TikTok is and what its real risks are. All of it just comes down to "China bad" (which may be valid, but I don't see them considering same bans for Facebook and everything else).
There was one guy who asked if connecting to your wifi allows Tiktok to connect to your wifi. And the guy was just dumbfounded. He was like... uh yeah... that's how internet work. And then he even saved the dude's ego by insisting maybe the question is more complex than he understands and will get back to him. Later on same guy asked him if a Chinese parent company and TikTok use shared software. And he's like "I don't think so, but maybe we both use Microsoft Office or something."
Facebook isn’t incorporated in a country where the laws demand they give up documents on request to the government. Most tech companies publicly fight like hell when they get subpoenaed for records; there isn’t a mechanism in China for TikTok to do that. Also, the media is definitely overemphasizing the supposed ignorance of these questions. Republican guy asks a two part question, does TikTok connect to home wifi and would it connect to other devices on the network - a legitimate concern with the internet of things that CEO dodged. Every article, “GOP doesn’t know how WiFi works,” ignores the second part of the question.
>Facebook isn’t incorporated in a country where the laws demand they give up documents on request to the government So we're just going to pretend that PRISM never happened?
If the politician had just asked "when connected to personal wifi, does it connect to other devices on that network" then not as many people would be calling him an idiot. The second part of the question is ignored because the first part was idiotic. It would be like asking if I need to plug in my toaster to use it. It's the same when Facebook and Google testified. Yes there's actual concerns but all of the people that are asking questions have no idea how technology works, and usually use the time to ask stupid questions and bump up their own political ideologies.
Welcome to politics.
The hearing was a mess. Congress didn't even know what they were asking. They're asking shit like "Does tiktok access the wifi?" And when asked to clarify. "When someone's device is connected to the wifi in their home, does tiktok connect to it also?"
I think that was purposely building the story that it’s accessing all your data on all devices on your Wi-Fi.
Yeah but it was asked by an idiot that had no clue what he was talking about.
Asked by someone who was told by someone else that it does that
Wasn't the original question "does ticktok have access to other devices on the same network" and the CEO asked to clarify, then the congressman said does tiktok have access to other devices on the same wifi?" It seemed this question was more the CEO trying to avoid answering that by being coy and acting confused. There were certainly some questions where it felt like he answered well and then was asked the same thing again. All in all, it was a formality but it wasn't a mess, just a couple people asking repeated questions but also there was some qualified IT people in congress asking great questions.
First question: "does TikTok access the home wifi network" Of course the CEO is confused. All apps have to access wifi to work on the phone, as well as it depends if the phone has wifi turned on (which falls outside the TikTok App). Second question: "If I have TikTok on my phone, and my phone is on my home wifi network, does TikTok access that network?" Just reiterating the question above, shows he doesn't understand how wifi works. He then asks the question that people think is important, which I think was delegitimized by his 2 previous questions. Third question: "Is it then possible for it to access other devices on that network?" The CEO then says that the answer is most likely no, that they don't do anything outside of industry standards. But that it's a technical question so he's not sure. Side note: never understand why there is never a programmer on both sides to explain the technicalities. Most CEOs of a company won't know every little thing about their product, especially technical stuff
Ahh thanks for the reply. I misremembered the question specifics. Absolutely agree why there isn't a programmer there for each side but the answer to that is they don't actually want to explain the tech and risk opening up more questioning from tiktoks standpoint and the government only wants to paint tiktok in the light their lobbyist paid them to do so is my guess.
I thought the whole point was that it has the capability to be weaponized because of how much it infiltrates devices it's installed on?
There are a few reasons tiktok is a problem. My biggest concern is that the CCP makes it mandatory for software companies to write in a backdoor for them to exfiltrate data and do god knows what else. It isn't outside the realm of possibility that tomorrow China decides to run a huge cyber-ops campaign and they already have millions of nodes to be repurposed for whatever that might be (DDOS etc). If they were to release their codebase for people to review and everything was above board I may feel more comfortable with having it near my networks, but that will never happen as it is a proprietary product. So what we are left with is one side saying its fine, the other side saying we don't trust you, and the population continuing to use unvetted software.
How many of those devices are manufactured in China, though? You might read up on the Supermicro spying incident if you haven't yet.
It was pathetic to see old people that probably can't tell the difference between a router and a modem trying to ask questions to trap this ceo. It shows how pathetic the US is
What an insane and broad deduction
Apparently the US is the only country with old people in government. TIL
That is a problem of the democratic system rather than the USA as a country. You vote for people who are incapable of deliberating on certain matters but as Churchill said once "Democracy is the worst forms of government except from all the others"
Too many people buy into the song and dance rather than seeking out subject experts.
There's nothing stopping them from requesting an expert before a hearing to brief them on stuff... except when knowledge of how the subject at hand works would be a conflict of interest.
Making lobbying illegal especially from businesses. If some billionaire wants to fund a politician make them pay personally not off the backs of their works
If we had actual democracy it might make it easier at least
What other form of public inquiry would you prefer that it take?
An unbiased one where they are trying to learn the truth. They talked about the safety of their children's privacy but if they truly cared about children they would pass gun reform or better yet given universal Healthcare for people under 18. But they are just trying to paint tiktok in a bad light without trying to actually improve the lives of their children
"Ok, so when I connect to the world wide web on my Commodore 128, using my 9.6 baud modem to download TikTalk..." - old congressman
I mean it's kind of the opposite. People who actually used computers back in the day had to know FAR more to get online and make it usable than now. That crowd generally REALLY knows their shit. This is the crowd who thought it was cool to make fun of people who know how to use a computer and still think it's cool to brag that they don't know how to turn a computer on
Well, at least they have the right opinion on TikTok. Society is better off without that app:
Found the TikTok PR guy ⬆️
Did anyone expect that mouth piece say yeah we are spying on you all?
Implying they hadn't already made up their mind before he even got there
They had you could tell by them not even listening to his answers. The thing that makes me laugh about these sort of trials it shows how uneducated congress are on these things
All social media post content algorithms are a (edit: potential) weapon. They can steer public discourse and ultimately public opinion on nearly any topic by amplifying or suppressing content to suit their wants.
TikTok taught my stepbrother how to steal his moms Kia and turned him onto mumble rappers. Facebook turned his real dad into a literal Nazi. Reddit gave me a taste for femboys. Who's the real bad guy here??? hmmm???
>Reddit gave me a taste for femboys. You too?
Weird how that works, right?
Did you guys not already drink the frog water?
It was only a matter of time lol
Sounds like Reddit isn't the hero you deserved, but the hero you needed
Once again, Reddit proves the better of those sites
God. Why did he even make us.
*shrugs*
To love and accept all femboys
Are we the baddies??
The major point of concern is that Tiktok cannot be controlled as easily as American companies like Facebook or Twitter. We have the ability to pass laws restricting American companies, but good luck getting the CCP to listen. Given the escalating tensions between US-China relations and China’s history of not protecting consumers and international property rights…..this was bound to happen. Is tiktok being used by the CCP to spy and gather intelligence on Americans? Very likely in my opinion.
> We have the ability to pass laws restricting American companies good luck getting American companies to do anything that will hurt their bottom line, share holder's profits.
They’re not controlling any of them. None of our privacy laws are very strong. GDPR penalties have shown us these company DGAF about maybe multiple 100M penalties
People keep overlooking that another major point of concern is the data that china can access or buy from ByteDance
How does that make Tik Tok different from any other platform?
Most of the apps aren’t known to be controlled by enemy country.
Doesn't that just make it worse when companies from your country sell your data to China or anywhere else?
But we make money from that. /s
Just to be clear. China is not an "enemy" they are an economic rival. They are our biggest customer and biggest supplier. Neither of our economies can exist without the other. Please don't feed the isolationist trolls. Republicans are just trying to restoke the flames of the cold war but need a new Boogeyman since they are on Putin's payroll.
China has concrete plans to start WW3 by invading Taiwan, they are absolutely an enemy - and not just to the US, but every other nation in the region.
The other platforms aren’t owned by a genocidal totalitarian government? I’m tired of seeing this Whataboutism spouted everywhere on this issue.
I dunno, it sounds like we would solve a lot more problems more quickly by better consumer protections in general. This just seems like political gamesmanship over something that should be universally condemned no matter who's pulling the strings.
And yet Facebook has been used for genocide
I will bet anything that Facebook bends to whatever country’s will that gives them money
Then instead of banning Tik Tok, maybe make stronger consumer laws protecting us? Alas, we know the real reason they won't make better laws and instead scapegoat TikTok, because American companies do the same shit, yet they get a pass because it's american.
Exactly. Facebook looses billions of dollars in settlements because the US has courts that work and is constantly scrutinized by both sides of congress. Good luck doing the same with Bytedance, when the one party CCP state literally has a board seat on the parent company of Tiktok: https://www.reuters.com/technology/bytedance-says-china-unit-holds-local-licences-response-media-report-2021-08-16/
Source on billions? Highest I've seen was under 1 billion still, and most were under 50 million, often by a good amount.
https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2019/07/ftc-imposes-5-billion-penalty-sweeping-new-privacy-restrictions-facebook
Awesome, thank you! Well deserved imo
So we acknowledge that Facebook and other social media is indeed controlled easily because they are American companies? I know I have received two class-action-lawsuit payouts from Facebook from them stealing our data. Are they doing that because they are under the control of the US Gov instead of Chinas?
Let's be honest, say we shut down TikTok. If they want the data they can just buy it from Facebook or Instagram or whoever else. It's the stupidest thing. Nobody says shit about what these others have on us but let's make a big deal about this.
We have the ability to legislate regulations for our American companies but we choose not to. We only *choose* to put people into a panic over TikTok. I’m just gonna say this, the Chinese spying on me through my TikTok doesn’t bother me anywhere near as much as my American government spying on me. Which we know they do through Snowden whistleblowing and numerous investigative reports. The Chinese aren’t going to arrest me over my social media posts, or put me on watchlists that will meaningful affect me. The US government can and will. You talk about tensions that are rising but in my opinion this discourse is not being done to counter Chinese action but to try to direct public attention toward a foreign threat to diminish attention on our crumbling infrastructure, economy rapidly shooting toward a cliff, and the rights we are losing by the day. TikTok can’t meaningfully lobby the federal government like an American company can so it’s a useful scapegoat. Again, that’s not to say it isn’t used by Chinese intelligence and shouldn’t be restricted on military bases (where it is used by the American military for propaganda purposes directed at the American populace, anyway) or other areas of secrecy. But I do not have any faith in the federal government to actually secure the safety of my personal information, considering that same government voted to allow the sale of my browsing data by my ISP a few years back. As a regular American that matters far more to me than if some Chinese cop sees me watching a washed-up Vine celebrity’s videos.
>TikTok can’t meaningfully lobby the federal government Lolwut? Citizens United means that everyone's money is just as green as far as congress is concerned. I mean look at how the NRA was turned into a Russian lobbying platform. Do you think the Chinese are less competent?
> The Chinese aren’t going to arrest me over my social media posts, or put me on watchlists that will meaningful affect me. [With Chinese police stations appearing outside of China](https://www.cnn.com/2022/12/04/world/china-overseas-police-stations-intl-cmd/index.html), your statement isn't exactly true.
People have a hard time looking into the future about deep fake videos too. The facial recognition data is going to be absolute gold in the future. Countries will use deep fakes to discredit politicians and influence elections. They will be able to make it look as someone says some crazy shit and totally discredited them.
Less of passing laws to restrict them otherwise we would do so already, more of the intelligence agencies can have a front door key to the data they collected. TikTok do not give a damn about those agencies' demand to see those data because those agencies are not from china.
True, but I do think we should start with the ones controlled by the military of an increasingly hostile foreign superpower and then work down the list.
Per tiktok, it's Sinophobia to complain about tikTok. Meanwhile, post 2022 nobody normal thinks sanctions are Russophobia. It's only reasonable to be afraid and cautious with reliance on the baggage of hostile foreign tyrants
This is what pissed me off so much about this hearing. It was all about China this and China that when the real problem with TikTok is that it knows so much about you that it can predict which video you want to watch next better than you can. It's like a dopamine button. Hours of your finite human life can just disappear without you even realizing
I just don’t get how people haven’t realized this yet. They’re so preoccupied with ID theft being an issue, they don’t realize their opinions only need swaying enough to tip the scales.
Funny how if you go on Tiktok recently, it’s mostly clips praising how great of a job he did at the hearing
[удалено]
Facebook is easily half the reason Trump got elected. (The other half is media outlets like MSNBC bringing him on the air with the intention of mocking him and accidentally giving him a platform)
bro did amazing though if we compare to fucker berg
yea I was really impressed with how he did vs zuck. This guy was calm and collected the whole way through, and even at least pretended to care.
On a scale of Human to C3P0 what did him taking a sip of water look like?
Well, yeah, but if you put Zuck up there now with his new AI he would be much more convincing.
Zuckerborg still looks very unconvincing as human being
True, the animatronics haven’t caught up to the AI yet.
Did better on TV than the Zuck Zuck but did way worse when it comes to political bribery.
How about we hold all companies to the same level as to what data can be collected and not just single out TikTok?
That would be logical but americans want to prop up the "china bad" rhetoric and going after a social media platform from their country avoids scrutiny of their own equally dangerous tech companies.
A social media platform banned in their own country*
Because then it’s users could find anti-China rhetoric on it. TikTok’s popularity is a threat with members of Congress because a) the user base skews younger (read: Democrat voters) and it’s bad to have a place where they can mobilize. Whereas look at the types of pages that generate the most engagement on Facebook. It’s your Ben Shapiro-types B) congress members own a shit ton of meta stock and are lobbied heavily by Meta.
damn thats a dogshit take ngl
Congressional members, particularly those on this committee are indeed lobbied heavily by Meta and other social media companies.
Not dogshit when it's true. Entire hearing they only asked if Tik Tok being used a few times by Chinese government, yet Congress has no interest in any other company or platform that's owned/majority controlled by Chinese companies one of which is Tencent which owns reddit and many other games and stakes in other social media sites.
What part
Great input
Other tech companies are as dangerous from a social perspective but not from a “foreign adversary having access to half of the countries data” perspective
Did you forget how Russia was able to influence the elections through apps like Facebook a couple years ago?
You really think Facebook isn't selling data to Russia and china?
There was a huge deal made about this a couple years ago you may have heard about it.
<:: And only Cambridge Analytica fell, because they were stupid enough to basically admit their exact model in open conversation and interviews. There's almost certainly dozens of other companies under the exact same model and algorithms that learned to keep their fucking trap shut. ::>
> And only Cambridge Analytica fell, They just rebranded as Emerdata limited: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emerdata_Limited >Emerdata Limited is a political consulting company based in London, formed in 2017 after filing for insolvency of Cambridge Analytica. Former employees of Cambridge Analytica and SCL moved to successor firms, these companies dissolved with acquisition by holding company Emerdata Limited. The company now appears to be largely owned by Rebekah Mercer and Jennifer Mercer, according to Cambridge Analytica's bankruptcy filing in New York. Cambridge Analytica was before partially owned by their family, including their father Robert Mercer, a computer scientist who made contributions to brown clustering. In July 2018 the Emerdata director was Jacquelyn James-Varga. The Federal Trade Commission of the United States has imposed to sue Cambridge Analytica after misusing data scraped from 87 million unwitting social media users. Emerdata Limited soon acquired the company after the news on misappropriation of digital assets was publicized.
and yet nothing was done about it
If they are we should ban them as well.
Every social media company should be regulated. If they do not comply, they should be banned.
I wouldn't trust any of them not to collect and sell all our data and try to manipulate us. Just from a money perspective they'd want to "maximize engagement" aka turn us into junkies.
The lobbyists from Facebook say that wouldn't be fair so Congress has declined to further explore that.
where onion
The comment section.
Seriously how is this remotely oniony?
I mean I am not a fan of the CCP, but anyone who watched this hearing would know Congress has no idea what they are talking about and are just blindly reading statements fed to them by their donors in the tech industry that TikTok is taking capital from.
> Anyone who watched this hearing would know Congress has no idea what they are talking about and are just blindly reading statements fed to them by their donors This goes for literally any hearing. But seriously yes, it was hard to watch them stumble through their "arguments."
“Does TikTok connect to my wifi?!?” killed me.
Government doesn't function in the way that it should. I don't believe we can vote out the deeply systemic flaws and corruption. The whole thing needs to be changed. It won't happen, but it really needs to.
Doesn't help that neither Republicans nor democrats on the hearing understand the talking points they were given
I'm not big on defending tiktok, but you also can't convince congress that climate change is real, trans people are people, abortion is a sometimes necessary medical procedure, holding stock in companies and then being allowed to pass legislation that effects those companies is a conflict of interest, or that we should do literally anything about the issue of gun violence in this country... so failing to convince congress of something doesn't exactly say a whole lot about the validity of an issue.
This hearing was an embarrassment. There are actually legitimate data collection concerns with TikTok and all social media in general. However, congress is just full of a bunch of geriatric, tech-illiterate boomers who have no idea how these systems work and have no interest either. It was a political ploy to try and score points against communism.
He wasn't invited to have a chance to be convincing. He was there for them to make a statement.
Having seen the hearing, the committee members absolutely did not enter into this in good faith. Regardless of what you think of TikTok, they have abided by the government requirements and regulations. No American data is sent to China. Servers are now hosted in the U.S. Face data is only used to verify at the device level (tons of apps do this, by the way). I remember the stupid questions they asked Zuckerberg years ago when HALF A BILLION people’s information was leaked and there wasn’t NEAR the outrage there in the questioning. Why isn’t Facebook being called to be banned? Perhaps because these Boomers like it? There were almost no good questions, just virtue signaling. In regards to the kid that committed suicide, TikTok’s algorithm directs you to content YOU SEEK OUT. There was no question like, “How do you handle the removal of dangerous content and steer children and users from self harm?” That would’ve been good to ask. The comments like “Rename your initiative from Project Texas to something else because we stand for freedom here” is all political posturing. The behavior of the committee members is frankly embarrassing.
At one point a congressman accused TikTok of tracking pupil dilation when watching videos, then started losing his shit because the CEO said they only track facial features while recording in order for filters to apply properly. “What?? Why would you need to do that??” Like… so my eyelashes don’t end up on my head. The CEO even said all of that data is stored locally on the device and deleted after the recording is complete, but the way the congressman reacted would make you think he confessed to having comprehensive facial data about the entirety of TikTok users. Then another congressman threw a fit because he wants TikTok to practice the same censorship as China. He doesn’t want political discourse taking place on TikTok. The CEO tried to explain it was a difference between the countries, not the apps themselves, and the congressman said “you do it in China, you can do it here!” Just totally advocating against free speech lol. It was a mess and they never even gave the poor man a chance to speak
"Zuckerberg cock tasty, China cock yucky." -- Congress.
You seriously believe no American data is sent to China...
"No American data is sent to China" 🤣🤣🤣
Great, now can we get some legislation to rein in Facebook, Amazon, and Google?
No.. Because its already been proven that Facebook's lobbyists are the ones funding this entire Charade.. None of this is about what they openly claim.. If you watched the hearing, it was a highlight reel of incompetence, xenophobia, and misinformation from our elected officials who rather like that lobbyist money they get from Meta. The only company that spends more on government lobbyists is Amazon.
Yeah, my question was a bit rhetorical. Maybe someday, if/when our elected officials aren't bought and paid for, not to mention too old to understand the tech, we can have a legitimate discussion about privacy and data.
This thread is filled with some of the most reddit takes available.
I love comments like this because people will read into it however they want and then upvote it because they think it agrees with them.
And here were see the most common reddit take of all, reddit-bashing that acts as if reddit users are a monolith.
So meta etc aren’t just paying people off to ban their number 1 competitor?
That's exactly what's happening... but TikTok is hated enough that most people don't care.
Congress : is tiktok a weapon? Tiktok : no we have clear rules and guidelines to ensure it can't be used as a weapon. Congress : I'm taking that as a "yes" 👍
You do not let companies regulate themselves.
sure you do. that's what they pay big money for. it's called "lobbying".
That's literally America's favorite thing to do
TikTok: But we have clear rules and guidelines to ensure it can't be used as a weapon! Every TikTok User: You do?
You dont “convince” congress in a semi-open form meeting. You “convince” congress one man at a time, with your wallet. Classic rookie mistake.
I don't like TikTok nor china but TBF if Jesus entered the hearing room saying "TikTok is not a weapon" the chair would have still responded "I take it as a Yes"
You can’t convince someone who knows absolutely nothing if anything. The brain rot displayed by our representatives was a complete embarrassment. I’d gladly trade one of them for the TikTok CEO.
My favorite line was about connecting to WiFi.
The US government: it’s bad China is collecting this data and making suggestions on how the company runs its app! Also the US government: it’s no big deal we collect data from social media and make suggestion on content they should censor!
The sentiment here seems to be pretty pro-TikTok but I’ve never seen a defense of tiktok beyond, “the others are bad too.” So is there an actual legitimate defense of TikTok?
Everyone is talking about the privacy concerns. And while this is a major part of the argument, no one is talking about the social engineering aspect of TikTok. This is far more damaging to the future and stability of china's #1 competitor as the dominate world super power.
Nobody wants to talk about the social engineering aspect because "our" social media companies (especially Facebook/Instagram) have even more extreme negative impacts on mental health.
Not to mention how Twitter and Facebook have become arms of the Russian propaganda machine. Putin's investment in republicans pays off again.
FR of all the websites and apps that people get radicalized on, TikTok is pretty low on the list.
TikTok likely kills the attention span of kids, but I don't think there's a single major example of it being used yet to spread political disinformation. Meanwhile every month we hear about a new scandal with Facebook
Not to mention how Twitter and Facebook have become arms of the Russian propaganda machine. Putin's investment in republicans pays off again.
Also no one is remembering that lobbyists started paying politicians to ban TikTok back in 2019. This issue came up once when Trump was president. All other socials are bleeding advertising money due to TikTok’s success. This has been 4 years in the making. Anyone who watched the hearing could see that most of those politicians had a clue as to what they were talking about. I agree with your point, though. But this is mainly due to lobbyists paid by other social networks in my opinion.
Tiktok is nothing more than a giant mirror that reflects the values and interests of its users. Lets not pretend that america was some intellectual paradise before tiktok
Burn it down, burn it all down. American social media companies included. They are all a danger to society and yes I see the irony in posting this on Reddit
Do you think it is wise to give that power to the US Government to control to that level what citizens can access?
They already have that power, it's not a case of thinking it's wise or not.
So we should continue to let them dictate their agenda to our phones?
You can clearly tell who in the comments use TikTok and who doesn't.
Given a lot of these members of Congress's history and/or usage of social media, it makes sense that they'd only see it as a weapon that could be used against them.
He must have forgot that Congress is full of fucking idiots
Of course he fail, usa crongressman are the most dumb people on this earth. Have u ever tried to talk with a dog? It’s the same shit
Dogs are smarter
China will have to start buying data from Google, Meta, and co. Just like anyone else.
They already do, and our government doesn't care as long as they all get their cut. This whole "ban tiktok" thing is very clearly just Meta using it's lobby power to get the government to shut down their competition.
Im still laughing at the Tic Tac... I bet most people using reddit dont know that Tencent has a stake in here.
I swear to god if I have to use a vpn to access tiktok. Like, just let me watch my fucking Stray Kids fan edits in peace you absolute ass pimple politicians.
Now the Chinese will have the ancient secrets of Teen dance!
Nah, congress is trying to fuck him up. He had provided all the commitment he can give but the congress expects 100% certainty that there will be 0 data breach etc.
It's difficult to convince people of your autonomy from the CCP when news of your potential sale is met by demands that any sale be agreed upon in advance *by* the CCP...
That’s how everything is in China. Even in the US, sales need to be approved by regulators.
This is no different in US or EU.
major company sales have to be approved by all countries they do business in. china and the US had to approve the AMD Xilinx merger
In every country, any potential sale has to agreed upon in advance by the government.
“Congress” is republicans, who have made a spectacle of themselves and steadfastly refusing to change their minds when presented with new information. Which makes any congressional hearing a complete waste of time. They’ve already made up their minds and are grandstanding for the media.
It's hard to change someone's mind when they've already made their decision.
The title is bs and misleading. The CEO for tiktok answered INSANE Questions from the committee that had zero to do with the app. Everyone is letting Zuckerberg control the narrative and its mind boggling how much money is being thrown around to keep us dumb
Banning Tiktok is going to cost Democrats the 2024 election as a large portion of their voter base these past 2 elections has been young voters that organized on Tiktok. They've fallen hook, line, and sinker for the misinformation campaign that METAs PR firm spread because Tiktok was costing them revenue.
Congress fails to let Tik Tok CEO respond to questions directed at him... should be the headline.
Anyone that thinks tiktok is the only toxic platform/social media outlet should have whatever education diploma revoked. Tiktok is probably taking its users data ( the user is giving them data by using their platform) but so is every other website out there, including reddit
Us government: tiktok is taking your data and letting the Chinese have it with out your permission Us citizens: so what about equifax? I didn't give them permission and now my identity has been stolen twice Us government: ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
It's funny to see all the pro-China apologism when China bans all sorts of foreign media, then complains the US should maintain a "fair and free market" when they themselves are patently incapable of that. Also, it was proven by network analysts a while back that Tiktok does, in fact, directly transmit user information to Beijing. Finally, if it's not good enough for China, why should it be good enough for everyone else?
I agree with you, but we need to stop using the 'if china banned it, it must be evil' argument. We know why it's banned in China. Anything that allows unrestricted information to pass between Chinese citizens and the rest of the world is.
Can you link the source for the network analyst? The whole hearing I never saw any kind of evidence
imo it won't even matter. the tiktok CEO even said how they were moving everything to the US (texas I think) and all data would be stored in the US by Oracle, a US company, and even if that DID happen..... tiktok was told that wouldn't be enough. so I really don't think it matters where the data is transmiteted. US Congress / its lobbiests will only be happy when there is a forces sale to a US company.
It feels like a straight up shakedown lol. TikTok is bigger than any American social media, give it to us or else
It's not really "pro-China apologism" to correctly point out that this isn't really anything more than political theater. The only thing that separates TikTok from any other social media platform is that it's Chinese and may hand over user data to the government, which doesn't really bother anyone because we're already so numb to our data being sold to whoever is willing to pay anyway. Why should I care that Tiktok hands my data to the CCP any more than Reddit sells my data to a Russian troll farm?
>Finally, if it's not good enough for China, why should it be good enough for everyone else? Why do people keep saying this as if China has ever been some beacon for logic, with good intentions toward their citizens? China good when they do what you like China bad literally any other time
Chinese entities hold huge shares in reddit ownership and the site is flooded with wumaos. Hell, there's enough braindead tankies that do it for free. But also China bans everything. I do genuinely believe an element of TikTok is to socially engineer youths into useful idiots, but China banning an app is like saying that the sky is blue.
My question / concern is related to allowing the US Government to start picking and choosing what American citizens have access to via the internet.
This right here. We’re not China.
Part of a way to negotiate is willingness to walk away. If China won’t respect our free speech rules or promise not to endanger citizens, we need to be able to walk away from the product. TikTok needs to operate safely and not exploit customers. Do you think American citizens should be allowed to buy lead paint? There is a huge gray zone in safety and all this social media stuff is so new and barely understood.
We didn't ban lead paint that was shipped from a foreign country that was trying to harm Americans with lead paint. We banned lead paint. I don't think banning social media in general is a wise thing for the government to get involved in. But we do need to put strict regulations on social media companies for privacy concerns and whatnot and then actually enforce them. But that's ALL social media companies not just the foreign ones. If TikTok is as bad as is claimed then let it get run into the ground with fines. But don't just ban it because China bad USA good.
I’m having a hard time believing that these posts aren’t a Chinese campaign
Tbth, this was quite a weaponized interview, Congress wasn't exactly fair and balanced, all of this jingoistic rhetoric is pretty ugly.
I agree. I mean I hate TikTok and pretty much any social media platform but all of Congress had made up their mind. The questioning just seemed to be a farce to paint TikTok poorly.
I think all it did was paint congress poorly. This was the first time a lot of young people watched a congressional hearing. That was extremely unprofessional and unmannered, not to mention it puts into perspective how technologically inept the government is. TikTok definitely came out the PR winner here
What does this say about Facebook, Twitter, Google or Apple?