Everyone collects our data… Apple, Google, third party apps… everyone. So what is the really concern with China doing it specifically? Everything I have tried to read about this just talks about how China will use it for ads, but that’s what tons of other tech companies are already doing… so why is China owning our data different?
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The concern seems to be more steeped in a general fear of China as an adversary. There’s a belief that China is pulling the strings on TikTok in order to manipulate America that sounds more theoretical than factual, and largely only functions if you directly deny the last few years of social engineering on social media.
Twitter and Facebook are both American companies that, due to their hesitation to shut down anything that might give them the appearance of a political bias, let quite a bit of misinformation run rampant. There’s evidence that some early social engineering was used way back when the Ferguson protests happened as well. Given the extreme political divide between the two parties in America, it’s much easier to manipulate that divide than it is to do anything else.
Additionally, every company that data harvests sells that data. I find it highly unlikely that these datasets were never directly or indirectly sold to China. I also find it highly unlikely that China would be able to influence a “patriot” account on TikTok to cause damage to get a criminal record buried when that same “patriot” account can be influenced by a few notable influencers to purchase BudLight for the sake of shooting at it, or to march the capitol on January 6th.
It seems more likely that politicians are suspicious of it because it’s Chinese and thus may not be as easily influenced by American pressure, because otherwise the threat of TikTok seems to be, at best, theoretical compared to the very real threat of misinformation. Vaccine hesitancy, government distrust, and an increase in violence have all come from Twitter and Facebook already.
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