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this post was submitted on 25 Apr 2024
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What can ByteDance access that China couldn't just buy from Alphabet or Meta or some other tech company?
Just one small example: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2022/dec/22/tiktok-bytedance-workers-fired-data-access-journalists
Uh huh, and do you think Alphabet and Meta don't do that? Do you think if China offered to buy that data they wouldn't be able to get it? Grow up.
My point is that we should be taking internet privacy seriously, not just going after foreign companies.
It's not okay when the spies are American. Until I see serious action taken against the worst offenders I'll know this is all theater.
China can't buy data from US companies. That's illegal. 🤦♂️🤦♂️🤦♂️
Not yet. There was an executive order to ban selling data to "enemies" that would include China but it hasn't been implemented.
Also I'm highly skeptical it'll work. China can just work through proxies and not buy directly.
I feel like the US would ban selling vital data to big enemies, and getting info from ByteDance is free.
The US doesn't ban selling data, though. China can buy whatever it wants just as easily as harvesting it from ByteDance.
And I'd hardly call running an entire social media enterprise "free". If it's a torjan horse, it's an entirely unnecessary one.
Internet coverage of that topic is surprisingly limited for what seems to be an easily-thought-of national security risk...
ByteDance's capitalist entrepreneurs run the enterprise for them, and they can extort data out, yes, for free.
Running a company isn't free lol
Again, China does not run the company, they just own the leash on the private entrepreneurs who do. That's one of Deng's benefits for implementing capitalism. (mildlyinteresting: the word capitalism isn't capitalized)
China has a massive stake in the company. It's a huge investment for them. Hardly "free"
It's a one-time fee that also earns money back compared to the continuous payments to buy from other sources.
Assuming China doesn't have to spend literally any other money, even though countries are constantly investing in infrastructure and security and material to assist the business.
But also, literally not free. My point stands.
You won't just stop the maintenance if TikTok didn't exist. It's not like all China cares about is data.
Your question was "why would China get data from TikTok when they can just buy it from Meta". If China didn't get the data from ByteDance, ByteDance still incurs the maintenance fee. So no, that is not the expense of getting the data.
After a ton of alternating search queries, apparently both of these avenues are being used, and Biden announced working on such a ban in late February.
It's good the bare minimum is being implemented.... though it's weird how two months have passed without updates.
I must point out that this only concerns data being sold to Russia or China, ie, it's just security theater. I would like to see some restrictions on data being sold to anyone, including so-called US allies. Israel, in particular, collects data on American Palestinians who contact family back in Palestine and uses this to feed its AI that generates kill lists.
"but job loss!1!"