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whoitwas | on: TikTok goes dark in the US
I would like to understand your position. China doesn't allow US apps. If Chinese apps are allowed, then China has a big advantage over USA.

Do you understand what kind of information can be derived from 150 million smart phones?

lmz | parent | next
Is this supposed to be China only or should the rest of the world also be suspicious and ban e.g. Meta services especially since they don't have any competing service that is popular in the US?
darkwater | root | parent | next
Oh but we are allies! The USA will never ever use the information gathered on allies for their own profit!
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whoitwas | root | parent | next
Non allied nations should absolutely ban US apps. Additionally, all government devices should have strict security features. It would be wise to also protect certain places from all electronic monitoring.
red_admiral | root | parent | next
I presume meta is banned in China.
sekai | root | parent
> Meta services especially since they don't have any competing service that is popular in the US

Meta won't tinker with the algorithm to push propaganda. TikTok will.

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necovek | parent | next
One is a "bastion of democracy", and another is the "center of human rights violation".

Would you not expect the rules to be different?

If it's only about reciprocity and global hegemony, well then...

unknownsky | root | parent | next
Are you saying the United States is a bastion of democracy? It's not even classified as a full democracy. The list of full democracies are Canada, Austria, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Iceland, Ireland, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom, Costa Rica, Uruguay, Australia, Japan, New Zealand, South Korea, Taiwan, and Mauritius.

United States is classified as a flawed democracy. Partly because sweeping decisions like this one are made by Supreme Court Justices who nobody voted for and who hold their position for life.

Or maybe that's what you meant and you were being sarcastic with the quotation marks around "bastion of democracy"?

necovek | root | parent | next
I am not making a statement, mostly portraying the official stance from the USA government that has just had their decision to ban TikTok come into effect.

As in, due to their official stance, we should not expect reciprocity at all.

But you did pique my curiosity, where did you get that list of "full democracies"?

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lmz | root | parent | next
It may be a "bastion of democracy" but that says nothing about how it interferes with other countries. Democracy is only for citizens anyway.
Fnoord | root | parent | next
Said 'bastion of democracy' is a flawd democracy [1] who voted in a president who allegedly (facepalm) initiated a coup and got away with it. Also, a convicted criminal.

You could say it is a bastion of liberty but I'm from Europe and women here have reasonable abortion and sexuality rights.

[1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Economist_Democracy_Inde...

goatlover | root | parent
Now do China.
Fnoord | root | parent
Heh, agreed. But the derailing of USA is extremely worrying to me (the trend is downward), whereas with China it is a given I accepted.
whoitwas | root | parent
Bytedance chose this by not doing as requested.

I wouldn't refer to USA as very democratic or China as a center of human rights violation.

If there is no blanket ban, there would have to be many laws, rules, regulations and restrictions prohibiting the software from government buildings, etc.

In addition to the data points: contacts, location, audio, video, etc, malicious actors can learn a lot through deduction. That's before any sort of manipulation.

logicchains | parent
>If Chinese apps are allowed, then China has a big advantage over USA

Historically speaking the biggest threat by far to the lives and livelihood of US citizens is the US government and corporate elite. Giving them more power to control what information the population can access is much more dangerous to the average American than giving the Chinese government some data.