I will say I don't get quite the logic of being like:
"Yeah this countries spyware is bad so I'm running straight into the arms of this other countries spyware just to stick it to you original spyware!"
Instead of just, like, getting off the spyware.
It's like being robbed and pulling out a gun to shoot yourself before the robber can and throwing your wallet into a street.
Sure it spites the robber but they can just shrug and move on to a weirdo who isn't shooting themselves and they will probably just loot your pockets for spare change anyways.
Maybe I don't feel that drive to be social at all costs.
Most people do not care about digital privacy to the extent that they'll ever give anything up to achieve it. Online communities are not in any way representative of the general attitude towards these issues.
If I ask people whether they're willing to put a mic in their house to let me spy on everything they're saying they'll say no. If I say it'll also turn lights on and off and play despacito on demand the vast majority say yes. In isolation people prefer privacy, so long as it costs literally nothing. As long as they have to give up nothing. That's where we are, unfortunately.
The government took away your brain damage app, so you protest installing blatant authoritarian spyware on your phone... truly a genuis giga-chad move that will own the guberment.
Is enabling a genocide authoritarianism or is it good and holy?
After 15 months of genocide why do you think the US has any moral high ground? Racism? Because you don’t see Palestinians as people?
You are not entitled to talk down or preach to anyone. Your liberal government funded and defended a genocide. Or is sanctioning the ICC what innocent rule-respecting people do?
Holier-Than-Thou Liberal American are the biggest hypocrites and they are not even aware of it.
They didn't say anything about a genocide, they're talking about Spyware apps. Your brainrot is showing, you're unable to follow logic, try to stay on topic.
I'm pretty sure most people who are doing this are trying, in their own way, to make a point.
It wasn't about "national security". It was about a large digital meeting place where ideas could be shared, or feelings and frustrations at their government could be seen and felt by others who felt the same. Big Brother doesn't like that, unless it is on US Corporate Approved Social Media, where they can promptly shut you down, or get their algorithm to put post with specific keywords out of the eyes of as many as possible.
So, instead of creating actual data privacy laws, as they should have, they decided to attack TikTok, because Mark Zuckerburg got in front of congress during whatever case it was that brought his lizard ass in the room (maybe the Cambridge Analytica scandal?) and said that TikTok was more dangerous than his own platform.
There you go. It was never about "national security", as there were much better ways to handle that than banning one single app.
IT professionals clutching their pearls is just this year’s “won’t somebody think of the bank windows!” Our data is fucked already. Security and privacy had been made worthless now and only seems to have a compensative value to tech companies. So why not cast it to the wind and watch them scramble after it?
People are disgusted by the idea that one random person could track their every move and read everything they write.
Unless that person is employed at a large corporation.
I used to date a Google employee. They had a Signal chat where they shared screenshots of funny or interesting shit they saw on the user accounts.
And many abused their access to spy on ex-partners and the like.
I've recently met an increasing number of Gen Alpha / Zoomers that all have all their friends in some kind of family location tracking app, so they all know each other's locations at all times, and actually you're a rude asshole if you think that's weird.
I used to be disgusted that people didn't seem to care that they were risking their own privacy and national security to boot. But then I remembered that our own government won't do anything to keep our individual privacy in check from corporations. So as long as that's the case, I don't see why anyone should give a fuck. The government did this to themselves.
Makes sense as the only difference is jurisdiction, who steals your data, and what flavor the propaganda is. You got 2 bad options:
The fully automated malware "advertisement" system that steals every loose bit of information on device and sends it to the highest bidder and the US government(if they pay) while telling you how you feel and what to buy.
OR
The fully automated malware "for your safety" system that steals every loose bit of information on device and sends it to the Chinese government while telling you how you feel and that you love the government or else. As a bonus it will piss off a boomer in congress.
They clearly don't know or understand any alternatives otherwise they would go there.
Let's be real the only reason tiktok is getting banned is because the US govt isn't getting any tax money from all the data being harvested.
At least with other social media that openly sells your data to foreign countries the govt can collect that sweet sweet tax money to line the pockets of people with too much money as it is.
The real reason is that it's competition for the broligarchs. They want it gone, thinking that all that traffic will come to their platforms.
That's why there's no chance that the govt will do what many in this thread are saying would be logical--ban the data collection and manipulation itself, not just one foreign competitor--be consistent, Meta, X, etc. should also be banned.
So regardless of how stupid people are for signing up on the Chinese alternatives, at least it's good that they're refusing to move to Meta, YT, X, etc. They're deliberately not rewarding the broligarchs.
It's nothing to do with tax revenue and everything to do with controlling the narrative through social media. More specifically the fact they couldn't use TikTok to convince people there was no genocide in Gaza was what kicked all of this off.
These idiots are seething st the mouth to have their privacy buttfucked.
Go get it, kings and queens. Surely trading your own security for (checks notes) ..wow... dopamine hits from shitposts isn't going to have any negative impacts.
Wasn't just the corpos it was a joint project between the corps and the government. And in rebellion people are giving a rival nation full access to everything. If China had an obligation competitor you would be smart betting that they would've seen millions of holes before dawn just form people trying to spit in the face if tbe US.
Its a sensible protest, wtf is China going to do with that data that the US government and attached corporations wouldn't do, right?
Relax, they're just doing some "advanced" compartmentalization to get their social credit up.
On a serious note, you have to realise that some people genuinely do not care. Why? For many reassons. But an important one is that privacy concerns are a source of anxiety, at least for me. It's difficult, it sounds paranoid and unreasonable to somebody who's "not in the know".
I think we should introduce privacy at a more generic level. We shouldn't judge people for using these apps, no matter how bad we may think they are.
Take back control of your data. Take back the power you're giving to big tech. You have that right.