TikTok is taking the US government to court.

  • Maggoty@lemmy.world
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    6 months ago

    And What does that have to do with anything? We aren’t dealing with China, we’re dealing with a corporation.

    • Leate_Wonceslace@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      6 months ago

      The fact that the company that manages TikTok is insisting on maintaining the power structure that allows for influence by the CCP makes that claim incredibly suspicious.

    • FiniteBanjo@lemmy.today
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      6 months ago

      According to former head engineer for US locations of TikTok, their services are centralized in China to the extent that it probably cannot even run off the US locations alone, and the Chinese owners ByteDance had complete access to everything on the platform including user data and if you believe security experts: your photo library, text message history, contacts list, and information of nearby wireless devices that you’ve so much as passed by. Also, they’re a military partner in China.

      That’s not a US Corporation in any way, shape, or form. That is espionage. The fact that they announced they won’t sell shows that they were never a business operating for profit, it was always about control.

      • Maggoty@lemmy.world
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        6 months ago

        I’m sure you can link these security experts. Since that would be classed as malware and the industry standard is to write public reports on that stuff.

        And saying they aren’t like a US corporation because they do some military contracting is fucking hilarious.

        • FiniteBanjo@lemmy.today
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          6 months ago

          Would it be classified as malware? I think people hand over permissions on their smartphone for most or all of those things on a daily basis without a second thought.

          The report on the vast extent of data obtained by TikTok was published by an Australian firm called “Internet 2.0” but it’s pay to view. Seems pretty substantial, though, since it hasn’t been debunked in the 2 years since it was published. It also scored the highest recorded score on Malcore, owned by Internet 2.0, with a 63.1.

          • Maggoty@lemmy.world
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            6 months ago

            Lmao. They’re trying to sell a product. They admit on their blog that the reason their score is so high is the trackers. Which are all from other social media companies and an advertiser. Oh and they counted Google Crashlytics.

            TIL I learned good app maintenance is considered a red flag.

            • FiniteBanjo@lemmy.today
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              6 months ago

              If they cared about money they wouldn’t be threatening to shut down rather than sell.

                • FiniteBanjo@lemmy.today
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                  6 months ago

                  Ah my apologies I thought you meant TikTok when you said “They’re trying to sell a product.” It’s a pretty common defence and misdirection on these sort of posts.

                  If you don’t trust Internet 2.0 is telling the truth, then how exactly have they evaded defamation lawsuits? Telling lies that negatively impact ByteDance’s operations would be grounds for a lawsuit in all 3 of these countries.

                  • Maggoty@lemmy.world
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                    6 months ago

                    Because launching a defamation suit is a PR disaster for them right now. Just look at you breathlessly repeating unproven accusations from years ago. They hardly need to blow up new ones.

        • FiniteBanjo@lemmy.today
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          6 months ago

          We were talking about what TikTok has to do with China, as you seemed to not know how, so you finding their direct obvious ties to China “fucking hilarious” is telling of your intentions.

          • Maggoty@lemmy.world
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            6 months ago

            No that’s ByteDance’s direct ties. TikTok would be indirect. My intention is to get to the bottom of this but it’s constantly just unsourced accusations and conflations. Not to mention excuse after excuse for why we can’t just pass an American GDPR. Instead we have to instigate Red Scare 2.0 which is totally not sus.

            • FiniteBanjo@lemmy.today
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              6 months ago

              ByteDance is not just an indirect tie between TikTok and China, former employees have testified that the TikTok services are centralized in China. The offices in the USA operate like a shell company.

              • Maggoty@lemmy.world
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                6 months ago

                No they haven’t. They said they sent head count and engagement data. That’s it.

                  • Maggoty@lemmy.world
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                    6 months ago

                    He left ByteDance 4 years before Project Texas. Even if that was happening then there’s no evidence it’s still happening. But also how is this any different than the US Government telling Facebook it has to share information?