• ISOmorph@feddit.de
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    8 months ago

    I don’t understand why people get so upset about this. Yes, Google, Facebook, etc. hoard your data too. But there’s a big difference wether that data is hoarded domestically or by a foreign nation that is pretty blatant about their industry espionage and political propaganda. Yes, the US do it too. But you really can’t blame a country for protecting it’s interests, be they ethical or not.

    • CalcProgrammer1@lemmy.ml
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      8 months ago

      As a user and not as a government agent, why should I care? If anything, having a foreign government hoard my data and spy on me is better than the government that actually has jurisdiction over me. If I were posting things critical of my own government I would rather have a foreign government hoard that data than my own government. There’s a lot more of a chance that US data hoarding leads to action against US citizens than Chinese data hoarding.

      I don’t see how this benefits average Americans in any way. This helps the government and corporations.

      • DeltaTangoLima@reddrefuge.com
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        8 months ago

        It’s not just about data hoarding, though. It’s also about a social media company having considerable influence over the messaging seen by a very large part of the voting population.

        Yes, it’s no different to other social media companies, but with one exception: the company in question is subject to the whims of the Chinese government. Something the US government is clearly fearful of.

        • CalcProgrammer1@lemmy.ml
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          8 months ago

          The domestic social media companies are at the whims of the billionaire class which I would argue is just as bad for voter influence. Neither side wants you to vote in your best interest.

          • DeltaTangoLima@reddrefuge.com
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            8 months ago

            Yep, agreed, but at least the government of the day can try and reign them in with legislation and regulation. Not saying they are (or will), but they’d have the option, if they had the balls to do it.

    • JillyB@beehaw.org
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      8 months ago

      Personally, I just find it really disappointing. This Tik Tok issue could have been an opportunity to improve privacy and reduce data collection across the board. Instead, it’s a surgical strike in order to not disrupt American tech companies doing the same thing.

      What will happen is that Bytedance will sell the US Tik Tok to an American VC firm and it will continue data hoarding as before. This time, the US government will be getting the data instead of the CCP. I’d rather nobody got it.

    • JustEnoughDucks@feddit.nl
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      8 months ago

      As someone who doesn’t live in the US:

      The data from google and facebook is hoarded by a foreign nation (the US is basically a quasi-democratic plutocracy which also has extremely extensive surveillance both legally and agencies caught working in grey areas) to boost surveillance and that is pretty blatant about their espionage and political propaganda. We get US political right wing propaganda on these platforms all over the rest of the world.

      There is a difference of course, but the gap is closing significantly every few years.

    • Sonori@beehaw.org
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      8 months ago

      There is also a massive difference in user experience in China vs abroad, to the point where they might as well be two fundamentally different apps. Even just things like time limits for children exist by default in China and are unavailable elsewhere, which kind of feels like an admission that they only take things like platform safety seriously at home.