Hmm can someone tell me if I'm just in a "republicans are hysteric about it so it must not be that bad" mindset?

It's obviously spyware to some degree, but this really seems more like a case of red-scare. I can't put my finger on exactly why, though. Makes me think I might just be reacting to their reaction.

I guess, what exactly are they afraid that China is going to do with this data? It's a missing puzzle piece that I've heard nothing coherent on besides "China gonna spy on muh datas". Like, sure, maybe if you're a government official, and I don't think bans of tiktok on government devices are stupid, but I think the nationwide ban idea is pretty dumb and baseless. So I guess my actual question is, what are they afraid of happening, exactly?

I can't believe so many people are cool with the federal government censuring specific platforms. It's one thing if we wanted to ban an action through law (e.g. data harvesting or shipping it overseas) but it's another to silence a specific piece of software.

Imagine if Congress passed a bill saying Steve can't recommend movies to his friends anymore.

Cool, can we ban all the American apps that do all the same spying too? Because otherwise this is just whining that China is stealing our shtick.

If the bill was purely a tictok ban that would be questionable enough. But the bill is SO MUCH MORE THAN THAT. Also, every app in America does the same shit. Just because they are capitalist America and not communist China doesn't make it better. Unless of course, you are a politician that benefits monetarily if the American company prevails.

Believe me, banning TikTok is not the solution.

TikTok is banned here since long time, but people are doing same shit, just on Instagram Reels and YouTube Shorts.

20% owned by China, 60% owned by global investors and 20% by private. Headquarters in Singapore and LA. I think tiktok is dumb as shit and never use it but there's a Chinese company called tencent that owns 97% of riot games. So let's ban league of legends cause dota 2 is better anyways.

In other news, close to 100% of American adults are over the age of the target user group for TikTok.

Obviously, favoring a ban is a more political stance than just not using it yourself, but it's still easy to call for bans, if you wouldn't be affected.

And almost half of Americans favor banning the free speech of the opposing view points (Which ever party they aren't). So this is not a shock.

How about we pass a goddamn federal-level privacy law in this country?

Oh... I see...

You say it's too hard to reconcile privacy laws between 50 states? Hmm, yes. Sounds impossible for a global superpower. Let's just get back to banning things. Cool!

Because the situation is so much deeper than just "banning TikTok" but rather

• US government monopoly on data hoovering
• Using tiktok as bait while rolling back even more privacy and safety protections
• Inconsistent dogma against chinese businesses

I don't know what in the world my officemate would do with herself if she couldn't watch TikTok all day. Besides her actual fucking work for a change, that is.

I am so goddamn sick of hearing the same "hehe hehe" and the same fake-sounding scream-laugh that those videos all use for backgrounds/overlays that I am ready to shove an ice pick in my ears. Ban this garbage, please!

Close to half isn't a majority.

I’ll bet close to half of the people in favor of a ban don’t even really know what it is.

Close to half of American adults eat propaganda for breakfast.

Here we go again.

These articles are like catnip.

People get worked up about something that isn’t going to happen.

My largest issue with this whole article is the source of data. It is completely based on a survey taken on their own site. This means that they're just feeding the readers their own preferences back to them.

I have a few feelings about it. First, I’m an average middle-aged middle-class straight white cisgendered male and the TikTok algorithm feeds me tons of stuff that is very pro feminism, pro trans rights, anti racist, pro labor. In a very touching and uplifting way a lot of times, actually. I’m a boring person but VERY passionate about these socially liberal issues and it gives me what I want and need to feel like a force of good, keep up with social issues, stay involved in some way feel passionate. My TikTok feed is woke as shit and good for me. I simply don’t see this on Facebook, YouTube and all the rest. I don’t see it. Of course everyone’s algorithm is different…

So maybe TikTok uses my attention for evil…data harvesting, influencing, hacking…I don’t know. I don’t trust china any more or less than most people. But how much do we trust meta, Google, Apple, Microsoft etc? I don’t particularly.

I may just be naive…but I do see a lot of good things that TikTok does, as dumb as it sounds.

This is the best summary I could come up with:

WASHINGTON, Aug 16 (Reuters) - Close to half of American adults support a ban on the Chinese-owned social media app TikTok, according to a new Reuters/Ipsos survey that also asked questions about national security concerns and China.

The survey also revealed deep worries among Americans about China's global influence at a time when U.S.-China relations have fallen to their lowest point in decades.

FBI Director Christopher Wray said in March that China's government could use TikTok to control software on millions of devices and drive narratives to divide Americans, adding that the app "screams" of national security concerns.

Other top U.S. intelligence officials, including CIA Director William Burns, also have said TikTok poses a threat.

Former President Donald Trump in 2020 sought to bar new downloads of TikTok but a series of court decisions blocked the ban from taking effect.

Florida governor and presidential candidate Ron DeSantis has said he favors some form of national ban on the app.

I'm a bot and I'm open source!

Their poll must favor boomers.