US senators push to declassify TikTok briefings

senators were told TikTok is able to “spy on the microphone on users’ devices, track keystrokes and determine what the users are doing on other apps.”

Wow, they’ve just described Snapchat, Instagram, Facebook, and Google’s business model as well, so why not ban these motherfuckers too?

The difference is the US government believes that TikTok is beholden to the Chinese government. When a corporation acts this way it is an invasion of privacy. When a foreign government acts this way it is espionage.

If TikTok is sold to an entity the US government thinks is sufficiently independent from a foreign government, then they can continue spying on users.

Alternatively, they may be able to registers under the Foreign Agents Registration Act. I don't know how that would impact TikTok's ability to operate though.
- Not just another country, but a hostile foreign country. If France owned TikTok no one would care. But to the US government, China is in the top 5 of most hostile nations and is definitely the top of hostile nations in terms of world power and reach. It's essentially giving out a LOT of info to what they see as "the enemy". And also it has a lot of potential use to track US government employees like diplomats and high-level military leaders. Even if those people don't have TikTok installed, their kids might.
- Finally someone who understands the nuance here.
- The US government believes its hegemony over global surveillance and propaganda is dying. And it has to ban apps as an act of coping over their failures. They expect their puppet states around the world to follow suit.
  
  FTFY
  
  Honestly, Fvck em' both.
- What's bad for the goose is bad for the gander.
  
  The line between corporations and governments is not so clear when it comes to what's in a citizens best interests.
I don't think that the government cares much about whether a company is extracting information and using it to sell ads. I do think that they care about whether that company is using that information to target governments.

I think that that position is understandable.

What I am skeptical of is the solution. Is having ByteDance divest going to avoid other ways of accomplishing the same thing? How many popular phone apps are out there that could gather data? How many other media sources can be influenced?

And for that matter, the US only has jurisdiction to the extent that TikTok does business in the US. If something like it were to provide free service over the Internet, not sell ads or whatnot in the US, it doesn't fall under US jurisdiction.
- It's under US jurisdiction if it's on the app stores.
  
  The US government could require Apple and Google to block it from going through their stores anywhere on the planet as US companies.
- If something like it were to provide free service over the Internet, not sell ads or whatnot in the US, it doesn’t fall under US jurisdiction.
  
  Actually, that's a point where there is precedent to the contrary. The GDPR claims extraterritoriality even if there is no payments involved, if the free services are provided to EU citizens. It enforces it by proxy, mostly through international agreements, like in the case of US companies.
And general motors
Those companies are already based in the US.

healthcare pls

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- Apparently it is, since they're worrying about tiktok and not also giving citizens healthcare. One is actually happening, the other, not so much.
- I'm a big fan of TT. I will part with it in order to not die due to lack of basic medical care.

I uninstaller tiktok a long time ago due to privacy concerns with it falling in China's hands.

Do other governments use my info? Sure... But they're far less likely to destroy my rights than China is.

I would love an explaination on that last part.
- Maybe they are Chinese?
- I assume he means China doesn't have the best track record of treating their citizens humanely. At least according to Western standards (I'm not saying they are perfect either).

This is the best summary I could come up with:

Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal and Republican Senator Marsha Blackburn are calling for TikTok briefings to be declassified so the government can “better educate the public on the need for urgent action.” The briefings come as support grows for a forced sale of TikTok due to national security concerns around ByteDance, the Chinese company that owns the app.

TikTok is a weapon in the hands of the Chinese government, and poses an active risk to our democratic institutions and national security,” Blumenthal and Blackburn wrote.

Last week, in an unusually speedy process, the House passed a bill that would force ByteDance to divest from TikTok or risk a ban in the US.

Efforts to ban TikTok have simmered on the back burner for years and are just now gaining momentum, with some in Congress saying the app poses national security concerns.

Evidence that Americans’ data is shared with the Chinese government is scant, and even after the briefings this week, senators have been cagey about what intel they now have.

Without knowing specifics about what Congress is privy to, it’s hard to assess whether there’s concrete evidence that TikTok is misusing user data and misappropriating hardware — or whether it’s just doing what every other tech platform is.

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