I stumbled across this today, we didn't appreciate him enough

greenbean.sixpack

Well-known member
Oct 6, 2012
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The idea of an app developed by a Chinese company that has to do whatever the CCP tells them to do on millions of Americans phones is pretty frightening.
Aren’t iphones and many computers made in China? I’m assuming we already being tracked
 

Hot Rock

Active member
Jan 2, 2010
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Wow, censorship applauded. Never thought I would see the day in the US but it's upon us. What's next books being banned? Oh wait, that's happening too. Oh ****.
 
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horshack.sixpack

Well-known member
Oct 30, 2012
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The idea of an app developed by a Chinese company that has to do whatever the CCP tells them to do on millions of Americans phones is pretty frightening.
The number of people I come across who blow off my suggestion to never put the app on their phone is crazy. They literally have no idea what the repercussions are and will be but by God they aren't gonna miss some stupid video...
 

92Alum

New member
Oct 29, 2013
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Wow, censorship applauded. Never thought I would see the day in the US but it's upon us. What's next books being banned? Oh wait, that's happening too. Oh ****.
How dare the government prioritize national security over my entertainment from hours of watching cat videos. It’s not a censorship issue. Its an ownership issue which is why the law states that TikTok can stay on platforms if the ownership is transferred outside of China.
 
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greenbean.sixpack

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Oct 6, 2012
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Let’s be real, the only reason the gub’mint is pushing for this ban is because it’s a direct competitor to Zuck’s platforms.
 
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MSUDOG24

Well-known member
Mar 31, 2021
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Funny, I woke up to a fraud alert on my phone this morning and sure enough, 14 of these entries on my checking account. I've never had any kind of "SM" but thought they were free. Is there some type of premium service they charge for?

1736874208422.png
 

Darryl Steight

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Sep 30, 2022
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There's a company based in the US trying to buy it, and their mission is to keep the stupid dancing part of the app, but remove the spyware.

That seems to be a pretty good goal. Preserve the app for all the weirdos who like looking at the dances, maintain free speech principles, etc.; but still also regain some semblance of security.
 

RivaDawg

Member
Feb 26, 2008
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The number of people I come across who blow off my suggestion to never put the app on their phone is crazy. They literally have no idea what the repercussions are and will be but by God they aren't gonna miss some stupid video...
Honest question-I don’t have the app on my phone. What are the repercussions? I know they track info through the app, but don’t other apps and websites that use cookies?
 

dorndawg

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Sep 10, 2012
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There's a company based in the US trying to buy it, and their mission is to keep the stupid dancing part of the app, but remove the spyware.

That seems to be a pretty good goal. Preserve the app for all the weirdos who like looking at the dances, maintain free speech principles, etc.; but still also regain some semblance of security.
Without taking the data, how/why is that economically viable?
 

onewoof

Well-known member
Mar 4, 2008
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How many faculty, staff and alumni hated that he had a personal friendship with Trump. Trump called him often.

I am sure that makes many of you ladies here upset.
 
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Darryl Steight

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Sep 30, 2022
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Without taking the data, how/why is that economically viable?
I haven't studied it, just saw the interview with Kevin O'Leary, who is one of the leaders of the group.

Apparently (I don't know this, just assuming) Facebook, X, Instagram and others are functioning just fine in the US without being a threat to blow up our world, so maybe O'Leary thinks he can own one too and remove the threat somehow. Perhaps it's as simple as we trust it if an American owns it (or anyone but the Chinese). Again, these are all just guesses on my part.
 
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85Bears

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Jan 12, 2020
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How many faculty, staff and alumni hated that he had a personal friendship with Trump. Trump called him often.

I am sure that makes many of you ladies here upset
Really true. People are insane over politics. Colors every thought and impression they have. Nevermind a friendship predated any political run and in all likelihood was apolitical, it just infuriated some small minded knee jerk little brained people.
 

Hot Rock

Active member
Jan 2, 2010
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How dare the government prioritize national security over my entertainment from hours of watching cat videos. It’s not a censorship issue. Its an ownership issue which is why the law states that TikTok can stay on platforms if the ownership is transferred outside of China.
You mean censoring what people say? You want to only watch Fox News or CNN then you will forever be in the dark. Censorship is censorship and in this case it’s the American billionaires controlling information you can get.
 

horshack.sixpack

Well-known member
Oct 30, 2012
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Honest question-I don’t have the app on my phone. What are the repercussions? I know they track info through the app, but don’t other apps and websites that use cookies?

When I said "have no idea", I meant it for me and them. There is literally no telling what they are doing with the data that they do have, and what they may be gathering surreptitiously, and all of that is without even considering the impact of consuming content from a state sponsored app. It would be nice to believe in Apple and their testing and assume that the app doesn't have kernel access or any other nefarious capabilities wrt to possible compromising financial apps/logins/etc., but the reality is that the Chinese will be doing everything they can to do bad things, and TikTok gives them a foothold to continuously try to do so.

CrowdStrike wasn't supposed to be messing with the Microsoft kernel, yet they damn near shut the world down with a simple, inadvertent, software update. Imagine what a motivated nation state is capable of with an app on everyone's phone as their default attack path.
 

johnson86-1

Well-known member
Aug 22, 2012
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You mean censoring what people say? You want to only watch Fox News or CNN then you will forever be in the dark. Censorship is censorship and in this case it’s the American billionaires controlling information you can get.
Not that this is necessarily getting traction for good reasons, but when the company has an algorithm in the US that will promote cutting videos to young people but the algorithm in its home country pushes videos talking about the importance of things like hard work, studying, and nutrition, I'm not as bothered by potential free speech abuse. Definitely something to watch, but it's not primarily a free speech issue. Always the concern that it will be used as precedent for attacking a us owned company that is not essentially an alter ego of a hostile government, but I think that's a battle you fight when you get there.

Besides, this isn't nearly as concerning as far as precedence as what the Biden administration has already done to coerce private entities to engage in censorship. If they try to attack a Meta, Twitter, REddit, youtube, or whatever competitor on the horizon, the precedent will be what has already been done to them, not what is being done to Tiktok.
 

dorndawg

Well-known member
Sep 10, 2012
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I don't have tic tack and don't plan to; I just don't enjoy the short video format, so my ox isn't getting gored here. I tend to come down on the side of foreign ownership/direction of any major regular or social media outlet isn't in our interests. I also am not positive that any major social media outlets regardless of ownership are in ANYONE'S best interests. I've seen folks make very compelling arguments in several directions. It's certainly an interesting question.

Another thought: if the CCP (or whoever) simply offered to buy user data from zuckerberg, elmo, bezo or whoever - are we positive they wouldn't simply sell it? Are we positive they have not?

Anyhow, millions of Americans are just downloading the actual Chinese version:

Xiaohongshu was the most downloaded free app in the U.S. Apple store on Tuesday. Over 300 million people, mostly in China, use the app, where they share short videos as well as still, text-based posts. People flocking to it said, in interviews and on the app, that they wanted to show they do not share Washington’s concerns about TikTok’s ties to China.

Xiaohongshu means “little red book” in Mandarin. Americans new to the app said they were not put off by the reference to a book of Mao Zedong’s sayings. Many call the app “Red Note.”
 
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RivaDawg

Member
Feb 26, 2008
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When I said "have no idea", I meant it for me and them. There is literally no telling what they are doing with the data that they do have, and what they may be gathering surreptitiously, and all of that is without even considering the impact of consuming content from a state sponsored app. It would be nice to believe in Apple and their testing and assume that the app doesn't have kernel access or any other nefarious capabilities wrt to possible compromising financial apps/logins/etc., but the reality is that the Chinese will be doing everything they can to do bad things, and TikTok gives them a foothold to continuously try to do so.

CrowdStrike wasn't supposed to be messing with the Microsoft kernel, yet they damn near shut the world down with a simple, inadvertent, software update. Imagine what a motivated nation state is capable of with an app on everyone's phone as their default attack path.
Thanks.
 
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She Mate Me

Well-known member
Dec 7, 2008
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The number of people I come across who blow off my suggestion to never put the app on their phone is crazy. They literally have no idea what the repercussions are and will be but by God they aren't gonna miss some stupid video...

It's never even crossed my mind to put it on my phone. But I'm not like most people and even less so as I grow older. It has its pluses and minuses.

I've never embraced Facebook from the moment it came out. The idea of having that much of my life and information basically owned by an unseen entity and out there for anybody to see seemed almost UnAmerican to me and scared me from the start.
 
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