TicTok bans are they necessary

[HppyHrryHrdn]

I was interested to see how many of the members here are A) on TicTok  and B) are in favor of states and the US government banning TicTok from government devices.  Some universities have gone so far as to block the site from passing through their networks. 
I kind of see this as government overreach. Yes Gen-Z on average are too stupid for words.( I blame my generation for this.)  But there is no law against being stupid. In fact Darwin should filter those people out before they reproduce. So if you want to be tracked and let a foreign government know everything about you, fine go to town.  And if your kids are little and don't know any better, parents grow a spine and take it off the phone or better yet take the phone.   But I am concerned if the government or government institutions see banning as acceptable what will they go after next?

[MissBarbara]

I was interested to see how many of the members here are A) on TicTok  and B) are in favor of states and the US government banning TicTok from government devices.  Some universities have gone so far as to block the site from passing through their networks. 
I kind of see this as government overreach. Yes Gen-Z on average are too stupid for words.( I blame my generation for this.)  But there is no law against being stupid. In fact Darwin should filter those people out before they reproduce. So if you want to be tracked and let a foreign government know everything about you, fine go to town.  And if your kids are little and don't know any better, parents grow a spine and take it off the phone or better yet take the phone.   But I am concerned if the government or government institutions see banning as acceptable what will they go after next?

This could have been an interesting and though-provoking post.

Instead, you chose to ruin it by your silly comment about Gen-Z, and your even sillier comment about parents "controlling" the content of this kids' devices.

I strongly suspect you either do not have children, or you have very little experience dealing with children. And that you're absolutely clueless about kids aged roughly 12-25 (and college students are rarely referred to as "little kids").

And that's not mentioning the fact that if a university bans the app, it's not even remotely an example of "government overreach."

I'm old (42), I don't have TikTok on my phone, and I barely know that it is (my impression is short videos showing middle school girls dancing and lip-syncing to pop songs). 

Meanwhile, here's an interesting analysis of the situation:

https://www.npr.org/2022/12/22/1144745813/why-the-proposed-tiktok-ban-is-more-about-politics-than-privacy-according-to-exp

[Pornhubby]

I am 61. I have TikTok, because 4 of my children post on it, and I enjoy keeping up with them. My 21 year old shares videos he thinks I will enjoy (mainly making fun of dads).

Once my kids made it to junior high school, I quit trying to monitor their every online activity. Because the truth of the matter is, with smart phones, they have access to anything they want. And it’s an exercise in futility.

I do remember waking up in the middle of the night once, and going down to the game room. My third grader was playing Call of Duty on the Xbox, in group play mode, cursing like a sailor. He was nine years old! I canceled the Xbox account. He wasn’t allowed to play for several years after that.


America has a long history of attempting to dehumanize is enemies. China is a popular target. So I think the fuss is more political than technological. Does China engage in electronic espionage? Most certainly. So does Russia, and a dozen others. We get a vast majority of our computer chips from China. We’re currently trying to ramp up domestic production. But supply chain issues have shown our vulnerability.

[Clitical Thinking]

I think the government is free to decide what should and shouldn't be allowed on government devices, just as a university has a right to decide what they want to allow on their own network.

Beyond that? It's up every individual to decide. No network, site, or platform is ever truly safe, and I'm not sure why China possibly tracking how many cat videos my mother likes to watch on TikTok is any worse than FaceTube or TwitGram possibly getting hacked or selling my information to marketers.

[Writers Bloque]

My oldest and second oldest use tiktok, mostly to annoy the crap out of me with random and poorly shot videos of coffee drinks and foods I cut out of my diet, but I personally do not use it. Youngest daughter wants to use it to show off things she makes, but I told her to maybe get a little better at it so she wont get flamed as much. Son uses it to show off the farm he works on, trying to get us to move to him. I told him he wanted to go that path in life, and he has to walk it. But about banning it, I cant say I care too much, because if it gets banned, the way things move, there will be four other new platforms to take over its slot, I mean Facebook Meta or whatever bought Instagram, so the next new big thing is on its way.

[Fenderwise]

The issue is a strictly national security issue. When you install TicTok, it asks for access to absolutely everything. Are you using your phone for MFA? Tictok can access it, email, text, location. China has been caught many times using Tictok to harvest data from the user's devices. That is a major issue, however that is not the the reason they are looking to ban it. Because of the unlimited access the app has, it can also send data to anywhere. The app has essentially turned the device into a bot. There have been over 3 billion downloads of the app. That would make Tictok the largest botnet in existence. Because the devices are geo-located in the US, it can't be stopped by geo-blocking China.

Years ago I used to teach cybersecurity / Hacking to DISA and NSA. I had a scenario where an enemy would infect systems and use our own national infrastructure to attack various targets (hospitals, power plants, stock market). The only way for the US to stop it would be to shut down the attacking systems, which would most likely shut down critical private entities (groceries, hospitals, banks, etc). Currently Tictok has come the closest to this nightmare scenario.

Also keep in mind the prevalent theory is when China makes their move against Taiwan, they will need to get the NATO countries out of the picture. They will do that by launching a cyber attack against critical national resources.

9/11 was a tragedy. But imagine multiple cities in the US without electricity/gas/water for weeks. Not a rosey picture. I prefer to skip the dances on tictok so I don't have to have the guilt of being part of the problem if and when it is used in an attack.

[seeker83]

Yeah, I agree that the major concern here is not the platform itself, but the very real security concerns around the parent company's relationship with the Chinese Communist Party.

Other companies whose parent companies have similar links include
- Huawei - hence the ban of their equipment in US, Canada, and other regions
- Discord - although I still use it
- Epic Games/Unreal
- Alibaba - obviously

I think that honestly, it is scary enough how much data US companies gather on us.  If you use the DuckDuckGo browser on an Android device, it has an optional feature to block 3rd party data transfer from apps.  I've seen GPS data, screen resolution, OS version, screen gestures, browsing data, and many, many other data points being captured by Google, Facebook, Salesforce, and other 3rd party advertising companies.  That data is used to target communications.

Now imagine that indirectly, the Chinese Communist Party, which has interfered with elections using ads and fake groups in the past, just like Russia, has access to that same data for MILLIONS if not BILLIONS of people.  The scariest thing is, almost every country is doing this, including ours.  It is a very scary idea that China could target specific disinformation campaigns or get access to private communications between government officials etc.

The internet is an amazing tool that has revolutionized our world.  The only problem is, the concept of privacy has not evolved with it in as meaningful of a way.  Hell, governments don't even need to keep tabs on us and spy on us anymore.  They can literally just BUY the data from Google, Facebook, and other 3rd party advertisers.  The difference in China's case is that they have companies that are legitimate companies who are in their pocket and DIRECTLY send them the data due to the government's sponsorship of those companies.