Comment on [deleted]
thingsiplay@beehaw.org 7 months agoBecause China is collecting information from millions of US citizens. Plus they control what the US citizens can see and interact with. US has no control over Tik Tok and that scares them. Why are Facebook and X not banned? Because Facebook and X are US based have to comply with the US regulators and share every collected information with the government.
RavenFellBlade@startrek.website 7 months ago
You do know that the overwhelming majority of investment and control in TikTok is already based in the US, and the only Chinese national involved with the app was the creator who already cashed out and retired a long time ago?
thingsiplay@beehaw.org 7 months ago
Tik Tok is owned by a Chinese company from China: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ByteDance Data is collected in China. Not sure what you mean. Why do you think US tries to block Tik Tok?
RavenFellBlade@startrek.website 7 months ago
60% of ByteDance is owned by global investors, most of which are based in the US. 20% is owned by the original co-founders, none of whom have any ties to the CCP, and the remaining 20% is owned by employees, almost all of which are in California. The overwhelming majority of the company is already owned by Americans. This entire thing is all about trying to silence a source of information that challenges and refutes government interests, particularly where Palestine is concerned.
thingsiplay@beehaw.org 7 months ago
None of this changes the fact that the operational headquarter of the company is in China and that they collect data that is send to China. Therefore China gets all the data from US citizen, regardless of who the investor is.
Vodulas@beehaw.org 7 months ago
TikTok itself is owned by ByteDance, but is incorporated in the Caymans. It has corporate entities in Singapore, Australia, the US, and the UK. The CEO is US based. Data is collected in Singapore, not China. There is a little evidence someone at ByteDance has access to the info, but according to official statements and documents they do not. But, even if they are lying, China can still buy that information from data brokers just like the US Government does right now.
We need privacy protection laws, not arbitrary bans of apps that do the same thing as US social media apps
thingsiplay@beehaw.org 7 months ago
The ban of the application is not to protect our privacy, otherwise they would ban US social media apps too.
jarfil@beehaw.org 7 months ago
Let me stop you right there. The idea of “investment == control” is a capitalist fantasy, not a real-world thing.
Real world is:
…and other variations on who gets the control.