Comment by GekkePrutser | Hacker News Reader

Comment by GekkePrutser | Hacker News Reader

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From the Gizmodo article, some statements from TikTok:

> “There’s a lot of misinformation about TikTok right now. The reality is that the TikTok app isn’t even available in China."

Yes it is, it's just called Douyin there. It's got different content but due to the language barrier none of that would be interesting in western markets anyway.

> "We have not and will not share user data with the Chinese government, and would not do so if asked.” TikTok used this one in response to BuzzFeed News."

Right, A Chinese company standing up to the CCP. Good luck with that. Remember Jack Ma? I wonder if he does.

I agree this doc doesn't really prove they do associate with the CCP either. This is just spin doctor stuff, the stuff they want us to beieve. But it doesn't prove whether that's true or not.

But this is the thing, in China every company follows CCP rules. It's just how things work over there. Especially with social media companies because the CCP is really worried about citizens organising themselves. They take a lot of control over those.

I'm sure in the western world with "National Security Letters" things work the same way. But at least there is some kind of oversight and people speaking out. No I don't trust Facebook or Google any more than I trust TikTok and I minimise the use of services from either. But at least Facebook and Google are from a country I'm more morally aligned with.

PS: I don't even use TikTok because I know I will hate the service. I hate the whole 'funny videos' category and videos in general. I don't even use YouTube much. But I was considering buying a Pico 3 headset before.

> Right, A Chinese company standing up to the CCP.

It's not a matter of if they willingly do it (or even knowingly do it). The only rational position is to assume that any data which is a) desirable for intelligence or competitive reasons, and b) located in (or transits through) China, Russia or any of the western 'Five Eyes' countries is being intercepted. This remains true whether the company agrees or even knows about it.

The only weird thing is that all the companies (including FAANG) don't just come out and say this. Hell, they can even add that they do their best to secure their data and that 'to their knowledge' it's not happening but knowing the capabilities and history of large state actors, it would be naive not to acknowledge their systems may be compromised. The only difference between western based companies and China/Russia based companies is that the western ones may mostly be intercepted for intelligence purposes and less frequently for extra-judicial (warrantless) domestic law enforcement.

If you spend enough time in the hacking/privacy sphere you’ll hear about gag orders that have been (allegedly) been placed on major tech companies that prevent them from disclosing major backdoors or taps that 3 letter agencies have put in place.

Plus all of the fiber backbones are tapped anyways.

> No I don't trust Facebook or Google any more than I trust TikTok and I minimise the use of services from either. But at least Facebook and Google are from a country I'm more morally aligned with.

Funny, I feel oppositely - Live in the USA, probably never going back to PRC, am not "overseas Chinese" and don't have family in vulnerable jurisdictions (though maybe those include some less developed African and Asian countries not just PRC). So if the CCP wanted to make trouble for me it would be a large and probably unsuccessful effort (real trouble meaning beyond remote/online harassment). Whereas if the US government wants to make trouble for me, even if they follow the letter of the law re: procedural due process and I eventually prevail, it is likely to be a very bad experience.

Are you saying you're more morally aligned to China because it's harder for them to reach you outside of China?

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