cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/12876226

The measure that sailed unanimously through the House Energy and Commerce Committee would prohibit TikTok from US app stores unless the social media platform — used by roughly 170 million Americans — is quickly spun off from its China-linked parent company, ByteDance.

US officials have cited the widespread commercial availability of US citizens’ data as another source of national security risk. The US government and other domestic law enforcement agencies are also known to have purchased US citizens’ data from commercial data brokers.

  • retrieval4558@mander.xyz
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    8 months ago

    This may sound like a rhetorical question but I promise it’s sincere.

    Why would I be more concerned about China having my data than when the US has the potential to collect that same data AND MUCH MORE through surveillance that we know they do? My own government has a much higher potential to do me harm than one on the other side of the world.

    • shalafi@lemmy.world
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      8 months ago

      Saw another post that had many great points. What if TikTok leaned into propaganda, topics like reunification with Taiwan? I promise that will effect us, big time.

      • retrieval4558@mander.xyz
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        8 months ago

        I agree that would be problematic.

        However I’m not willing to allow the government to ban a social media platform that a lot of people enjoy and rely on for community building (or even their livelihoods, in a lot of creators’ cases) on a “what if”.

        Think about the precedent this sets. What could it be used on next?

        • retrieval4558@mander.xyz
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          8 months ago

          In case I’m being downvoted because you think I’m worried about a slippery slope for no reason, I’ll link the full text of the bill here.

          The process is basically that the president determines that an app is an issue, notifies Congress (who does not need to give approval), then within a certain time period the foreign owner of the all must divest ownership or it would become illegal to distribute that app.

          There are definitions laid out in the text. I see nothing that would stop them from banning foreign news sources or potentially foreign shopping platforms except for the clause about “permits a user to create an account or profile to generate, share, and view text, images, videos, real-time communications, or similar content”, which could be broadly interpreted.

          Do you really want to give the executive branch basically unchecked power to limit our access to voices from outside the country?

          https://www.congress.gov/bill/118th-congress/house-bill/7521/text?format=txt&r=1&s=1

        • sheogorath@lemmy.world
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          8 months ago

          It already happened in other countries. Philippines and Indonesia elected their old dictators after a successful campaign on TikTok to whitewash their crimes so that Gen Z vote for them.

    • m13@lemmy.world
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      8 months ago

      As an individual I’d rather be giving my data to China who probably have no interest in me personally, rather than a Five Eyes country who want my data to spy on me, and have more interest in persecuting me, stopping me at borders, etc.