Majority of Americans Say TikTok Is a Threat to U.S. National Security

L4sBot@lemmy.worldmod to Technology@lemmy.world – 324 points –
Majority of Americans Say TikTok Is a Threat to U.S. National Security
variety.com

About 59% of Americans say TikTok a threat to the national security of the United States, according to a new survey of U.S. adults.

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TikTok now makes it clear that it may collect users' images and audio to enable filters and video effects, allow it to moderate content, and "for other non-personally-identifying operations."

Not a problem for me or any other sane person

As for the CCP bylaws, I'm all for the Chinese overthrowing their hell-gov and instituting liberal democracy but until they do, it's a non-factor.

Folks just won't get it until it hurts you and your families. By then it will be too late and they will have already invaded Taiwan. They want to generate video and audio models of you. They want to use those against your family and for propaganda purposes. They want to ensure they know where you are at all times to gain maximum impact when they do. It's not insanity. It's what they are actively trying to do.

Lmao well if they're trying to feed me propaganda they're fucking up because all I'm seeing is standup comedians, thicc goth girls, and Taylor swift clips, along with some of the best old-school-youtube content still on the internet.

Are you even on TikTok?

Edit: also China won't invade Taiwan because the Chinese armed forces are as embarrassing as the Russian armed forces.

I am absolutely not on the platform in any way.

Why would you underestimate them? They are in a similar manufacturing position as the US was before WWII. They have stated when they want to invade in their national security strategy document. They have also said how they want to do it which includes a significant code breaking and informational dominance component. They are doing what they said they would do. They are getting away with everything we allow them to get away with. This is a decision we are making right now. Are we okay with them having complete knowledge of everything that every western citizen does, from location, to social connections, to enough fine tuned data to build exact replicas digitally of their persona. They don't get that with existing western digital media apis.

Yes I'm OK with them having into from TikTok because they are not a real threat.

Well, the entire DOD and national security apparatus disagrees with you about them being a threat. I am sure you know more about threat assessments.

I 100% support the banning of TikTok on government devices, which was the DoD's initial suggestion. Republican congressional leaders then expanded this threat window to the average American.

No foreign apps should ever be allowed on US Gov phones, and very few domestic apps should be allowed. That's just basic infosec.

But the average people don't matter? Does the government have a responsibility to protect civilian networks the same as they do the rest of our critical infrastructure? Does it matter that 44% of US phones have now become always-on sensors for the PLA? Look again at the headline. It is not asking about you, but about national security as a whole.

The United States may as well be a continent-wide fortress. It's not that citizen security doesn't matter so much as the threat to civilians is negligible.

The most dangerous goal of the CCP with TikTok is spreading anti-Western and anti-capitalist sentiment. Democracy will survive that just fine. The kids are OK.