Comment by noman-land
10 hours ago
Those teens in Omaha will eventually become voting adults in Omaha and then will eventually come into positions of leadership in both the public and private sector. I can guarantee that 0% would appreciate being blackmailed or unknowingly used as pawns in spycraft. Teens in Omaha may not understand the full scope of what it means.
Can you definitively point to something TikTok collects that can be used for blackmail that isn't collected by any other social media app?
No, they all collect the same level of blackmailable stuff. They shouldn't ban TikTok, they should ban all data collection and get rid of the third party doctrine altogether. But China is sort of an active adversary to the US right now so banning it is a heavy handed method that will probably mostly work to prevent mass indoctrination from a rival and also prop up ailing US social media companies. The US govt wants mass indoctrination and blackmail material on people, it just doesn't want China to have it.
Please give an example of something that someone would be ashamed of or blackmailed by that goes through their TikTok?
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Why is it okay that it's collected by any?
And furthermore, why is it okay that it's collected AND owned by a company based in a country not subject to the rule of law?
"Facebook does it too" isn't a reason not to be worried about TikTok.
> And furthermore, why is it okay that it's collected AND owned by a company based in a country not subject to the rule of law?
Because I, as an adult, decided that I am ok with sharing my personal data within their app in exchange for getting to use the app.
As long as I am not sharing personal data of other people (who haven’t consented to it like I did) or some government/work/etc info that I have no right to share, I am not sure how this is anyone else’s business.
P.S. I would somewhat get your argument if it wasn’t TikTok but something that could theoretically affect the country’s infrastructure or safety (e.g., tax preparation software or a money-managing app or an MFA app for secure logins). But all personal data on me that TikTok has is purely my own, has nothing critical at all (all it knows is what i watch and do within the app), and has zero effect on anyone or anything else.
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Hopefully we'll ban those too. The first step is always the hardest, so you should always look for the easiest path (which in this case is banning a foreign government from controlling a social media app).
Teens don't understand the full scope of what anything means: that's practically the definition of teenager.