I admit that I’m not a big fan of TikTok. I hate it, given the adverse effects on society in terms of mental health and that it encourages young people to do things that can get them into trouble or self-harm along with concerns of brain rot due to the addictive nature of the app. Also, there is a concern about poor moderation on TikTok regarding misinformation and spreading hate. Of course, this is a problem with all mainstream social networking platforms, not just TikTok.
Also, I would never install it because of possible ties with the CCP (Chinese Communist Party). Despite being an Asian American that is born in the States and ethnically Chinese, I am against the CCP since it’s an authoritarian government that oppresses minorities (Uyghurs and Tibetans), their people, and Hong Kong. To be clear, I support Taiwan and Hong Kong’s Independence. As a result, I don’t use or install any apps, networking, or mobile devices from Chinese companies, as I cannot trust them due to the CCP ties.
However, I don’t think TikTok should be banned. It’s obvious why they are singling out TikTok since it’s a Chinese company. In some eyes in racists, CCP = China = Evil. The thing is, the Chinese people from China are powerless against the decisions made by the CCP since it’s a dictatorship. With all the anti-China rhetoric, this has an effect on Asian Americans like me as it’s hard to tell apart who is Chinese/Japanese/Korean/Taiwanese/etc. In the eyes of racists and bigots, they all look Chinese. Of course, this is nothing new. We have seen this in history with the anti-Japanese racism in the 80s in the United States.
During and after the COVID-19 pandemic, Asian Americans have had to deal with the rise of rampant Anti-Asian racism. While I haven’t personally experienced it, I feel the strong rhetoric against China. Yes, the CCP is terrible, but I don’t think Asians should take the blame for the decisions of the CCP, as the people in China are powerless against an authoritarian regime.
Instead of singling out TikTok and other apps from China, which will lead to anti-Asian racism, the US should be working on solid privacy laws along with laws regulating social platforms to fight misinformation and address the addictive nature. That way, they can’t collect all that data the government claims to be a national security risk or use it will. Of course, they aren’t going to do that since big tech companies like Google, Facebook, X, etc, won’t be able to collect data and make platforms addictive.
In short, the TikTok ban, no matter if it’s on the grounds of national security, is a hypocritical move. It will only lead to more Anti-Asian racism. If you are going to do it for one platform, you should work to have strong privacy regulations. We know the US won’t do it as big tech companies won’t be able to do their user data collection.
Don’t forget, banning apps is what the CCP does as they ban Google, Facebook, Deadbird Site, etc. We shouldn’t stoop down to their level by banning TikTok.
@chikorita157 I think going after a specific company reeks, a lot. There’s no law they are enforcing here. Just anti-competitive lobbying.
Laws first, then enforcement.
That and TikTok isn’t overall better nor worse than any other commercial social media. They all have the same issues. The only special flavor is that it isn’t a U.S. company.
If it is a security risk they should ban everyone with anything secure from using it. Even privately. But I don’t trust any of the big ones any more. Ergo why we need privacy laws, and making it illegal to use any harvested info.
Obviously the connection to CCP is very serious for any Chinese citizens abroad, as well as anyone with family in China. So I very much sympathize with that and see the dangers in that.
But for a European living in the U.S. I’m more worried about US companies, organizations, political parties, agencies, etc having information about us. I remember Stasi, and this has the potential to be worse. CCP holding *my* info isn’t very useful to them. U.S. companies have already harvested all that after all.
Also the plain racism isn’t acceptable. Nor is this hostile stance towards China. Pushing them away and isolating us aren’t going to help. The goal can’t be to fight the CCP, but to help the Chinese citizens make them obsolete and turn them into history.
@yon @chikorita157@amausaan.tokyo Agreed. I think if they are concerned about privacy issues, misinformation, and the likes, the government should regulate these social media platforms. Of course, they don't want to do that as it would affect other Big Tech and it's convenient to target TikTok because it's Chinese, which makes it seem more xenophobic and feeds to it. That said, the CCP is very bad for reasons I stated and this ban just feeds into the Anti-Asian racism.
I think the effort to make the CCP obsolete and push the Chinese citizens to stage a revolution to fight for democracy, like what other Eastern Asian countries (besides North Korea) has.
@chikorita157 @chikorita157@amausaan.tokyo Occam’s razor says lobbying.
One thing to remember is that they like to combine truths and lies as well as facts and made up stuff. Get something emotional in there, and then add a whole bunch else in as well.
Security risks are bad (and we’ve had so many in this country I don’t think there’s many secrets left), but the CCP knowing where I drive doesn’t matter as much as if US organizations do. So again noone with secure info should have *any* damn apps on any device unless it’s cleared (especially not spyware that “checks for porn”. That clown should be in gitmo.)
Basically I’m for privacy laws (make all info as secure as under HIPAA and then some), but never ever for going after a singled out company. The law is a thing for a reason.
Same with the CCP. Which simplified is bad, but as usual it’s a long complex set of events that lead to today and there’s no nuance in the debate at all:( I keep seeing CCP bad, therefore <unrelated statement> 🙁
Racism is racism. Doesn’t matter who is racist to who. It’s still racism. There’s no excuse for being racist, no special card that allows it. And there’s a lot of racism going on right now (including people who declare that they are anti-racist in one breath and then say something hyper racist in the next).
@chikorita157@amausaan.tokyo
Fair isn’t something I really care to extend to shitty companies or governments especially when they’ve happily done the same on the past. I’m not that noble. I’m not going to cry for TikTok or the CCP because companies aren’t people and it’s funny when empires hissy-fight each other.
But like you I don’t think this is for any of the plausible reasons you could think of. Nationalism and racism are the real reason the US is considering this, and I’m not really interested in Red Scare II, especially when it’s not even real communists. I would happily see the banning of TikTok because they refused to comply with new privacy laws that had teeth, but I don’t see us getting there anytime soon.
Agreed that this is just Xenophobia. If they are so concerned, they should also look at Facebook and Twitter, which also spread misinformation from hostile adversaries and have privacy issues
I wished that they would have learned the issue with the wave of Anti-Asian racism that Japanese Americans faced in the 1980s with competition and nationalism, which lead to racism and lead to a murder of Vincent Chin (who is actually Chinese and not Japanese). The thing is, it’s hard to tell apart between Eastern Asian races, thus any racist or bigot will think that all Asians are Chinese and try to do racist or even hate crimes.
I wish people would have learned that this kind of racism and xenophobia is a bad thing and Anti-Asian racism is never okay like with any other discrimination with other races, sexual orientation, gender, religion, age, etc. Sadly, America is repeating the same mistakes with a repeat of the Anti-Japanese racism in the 1980s, now with Sinophobia. Like I said, Japanese and Koreans are going to get this racism as well since as mentioned before, a racist or bigot will think they are Chinese too.
I have many problems with TikTok, and it should be banned if it’s under privacy regulations like the GDPR if they do not make an effort to comply, but this doesn’t seem the case with this ban.