Beyond TikTok *Maybe* Being Banned.

The buzz about the possible TikTok ban has been pretty consistent from what I’ve seen in social media, but it seems like most people don’t get why it’s happening.

One post on Mastodon I read said that it was a way for the government to alienate GenZ, and I thought – is this network really such a big deal? Anecdotally, I know quite a few people who peruse TikTok, and I shake my head because I explain why it’s not a great social network to use. In fact, the reasons not to use TikTok are pretty much the same as why people shouldn’t be using Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter X, and whatever else is out there: They want to know your habits, as I wrote.

In that regard, if TikTok is used so exclusively by GenZ, it’s easy to imagine lobbyists from the big social network companies might push for TikTok being banned. That is likely, since all that data on GenZ isn’t in their hands and they believe it should be. But it goes a bit deeper.

U.S. officials fear that the Chinese government is using TikTok to access data from, and spy on, its American users, spreading disinformation and conspiracy theories...

Congress approved a TikTok ban. Why it could still be years before it takes effect.“, Rob Wile and Scott Wong, NBCNews, April 23rd, 2024

That’s fair. We have enough domestic (American) disinformation and conspiracy theories during a 2024 election, we don’t need other governments doing their own to their benefit, as happened in 2016 with Russia.

Interestingly, and perhaps unrelated, the U.S. Senate passed a bill renewing FISA, which makes discussion about a ban of any foreign social media a little awkward.

“It’s important that people understand how sweeping this bill is,” said Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., a member of the Intelligence Committee and outspoken proponent of privacy protections. “Something was inserted at the last minute, which would basically compel somebody like a cable guy to spy for the government. They would force the person to do it and there would be no appeal.”…

Senate passes bill renewing key FISA surveillance power moments after it expires“, Frank Thorp V, Sahil Kapur and Ryan Nobles, NBCNews, April 20th, 2024.

Articles about FISA are very revealing – but people who are focused on the TikTok ban alone are missing some great information. This article by Hessie Jones on Forbes puts together some pretty great quotes. so much so I won’t quote it and point you at it: “Data Privacy And The Contested Extension Of FISA, Section 702” (April 23rd, 2024).

You see, it’s not just about foreign data:

…Under FISA’s Section 702, the government hoovers up massive amounts of internet and cell phone data on foreign targets. Hundreds of thousands of Americans’ information is incidentally collected during that process and then accessed each year without a warrant — down from millions of such queries the US government ran in past years. Critics refer to these queries as “backdoor” searches…

Senate passes, Biden signs surveillance bill despite contentious debate over privacy concerns“, Ted Barrett, Morgan Rimmer and Clare Foran, CNN, April 20th, 2024.

So, what’s feeding generative artificial intelligences? Why, you are, of course, with everyone’s social network ‘allowing’ you to do so.

The TikTok ban will likely be fought in court for years, anyway, and who knows what direction it will take depending on who wins the election?

But social networks and companies will still be hoovering that data up, training artificial intelligences all about you. It will help train algorithms to sell you stuff and influence you to make decisions.

TikTok ain’t the issue.

9 thoughts on “Beyond TikTok *Maybe* Being Banned.

    1. I’d looked into Finbold, and while they’re considered about 50% trustworthy, there is a lot of evidence that supports that they did lobby in more trustworthy sources. I didn’t drill down into the finances because I didn’t have to.

      We all know lobbying ain’t cheap, or we’d be doing it ourselves.

  1. @knowprose.com
    Every social network or any app should be prohibited to collect that amount of users data.
    It's ridiculous having rules for cookies and not for that shit.

    Like fakebook heist-gram data-on-tube snap-and-i-get-your-data-chat whatsapp-is-not-with-you and many others

    1. You will have no disagreement from me.

      “But it’s so we can give you better ads!”

      I didn’t ask for better ads, I asked for less ads.

      “We can give you better service if we know you better!”

      That’s what stalkers say.

      The rhetoric has been strong in Web 2.0, but here we are with less nice things and more of them.

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