House panel unanimously approves bill that could ban TikTok | CNN Business
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House lawmakers voted to advance a bill that would ban TikTok from US app stores unless the social media platform’s parent, ByteDance, divests the company.

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.

  • CeeBee@lemmy.worldEnglish
    0·
    8 months ago

    So what’s the difference between the CCP getting it for free from Tiktok and paying for it from an “American” corporation?

    Whataboutism at its finest.

    • Maggoty@lemmy.worldEnglish
      0·
      8 months ago

      That word does not mean what you think it means. In fact throwing China’s human rights record out there like it matters in preventing American consumer data from flowing to China is far closer to whataboutism.

      The only thing that matters in stopping American Consumer Data from being collected by the CCP is stopping American Consumer Data from being collected by the CCP.

      If that’s your stated goal then you need to hold all the data vendors accountable, not just the scary Chinese one. Because there’s nothing stopping them from selling it to China right now. There’s a whole chain of articles about Facebook and Meta doing this for over a decade. And you’re worried only about Tiktok.

      Gee I wonder why that might be?

      • CeeBee@lemmy.worldEnglish
        0·
        8 months ago

        The only thing that matters in stopping American Consumer Data from being collected by the CCP is stopping American Consumer Data from being collected by the CCP.

        And how is this accomplished when the CCP has direct control and direct access to the company that develops the app collecting the data?

        And you’re worried only about Tiktok.

        Well that’s a massive assumption. Please show me where I said “I’m only worried about TikTok”.

        • Maggoty@lemmy.worldEnglish
          0·
          8 months ago

          Obviously it doesn’t. But this doesn’t accomplish that goal. It’s like saying I hate bananas, let’s ban PBJs.

          If you want to ban foreign countries collecting data then make that the law and ban TikTok when they break it. And then ban Facebook when they break it. That’s how good legislation is done. This kind of targeted bullshit is just a gift to Musk, Zuckerberg, and whoever runs Google and Apple these days. They’re going to funnel data to the CCP just as fast as they can make a profit from it.

          The entire algorithm thing is also bullshit. Facebook has been courting the CCP for advertising for over a decade. To think they won’t use targeted ads for an info op is just fucking naive.