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Comment by mu53 | Hacker News Reader

I think the media is dropping the ball from hammering home just how bad this is for national security and world politics. Banning tiktok is superfluous in a world where every device can be compromised, every telecom is compromised, and government agencies are unable to mitigate attacks.

The reality is that the follow up to this information exposure is never connected to the outcome. How many government agents have been compromised using the OPM hack data? nobody knows. How many politicians/corporations intimidated via blackmail?

How have these hacks changed the outcome of world events?

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I don't understand what TikTok has to do with this. As I understand it the concern with TikTok is that it's essentially a way for China's government to manipulate (mostly young) Americans by shaping what they see regarding specific issues. As far as I'm aware there's no "it's an insecure app" angle being pursued, these are very different issues.

Besides, even if they weren't, I can be worried that I broke my leg and that my house is on fire.

"Tiktok is a threat to national security because it exposes US Citizen's data to foreign adversaries"

Why fight that battle when we can't even secure devices with sensitive data?

Why do anything when X is already happening?

To make the life of hostile foreign powers harder? Currently they are allowed to run code written by them on the devices of unsuspecting citizens, and curate the content these citizens watch.

The argument sounds like a non sequitur: because we cannot defend against all threats, we should not defend against any threat.

We each have our priorities. I want to secure government secrets held by OPM/US Treasury and key infrastructure like telecom networks, and others want to secure the average citizen's social media feed.

We can have different priorities for what is more impactful, easier to secure, and less restricting to fundamental freedoms without resorting to black and white thinking.

Cybersecurity is failing across the board causing damage worth 1000x of what it would cost to secure these systems.

I am all for securing critical IT infrastructure, I think we agree on that.

Hostile powers will exploit any vulnerability they can find. In democracies, ordinary citizens are a target. In Romania an election was annulled, and TikTok specifically named in the investigation: https://apnews.com/article/romania-election-president-george...

Therefore I think we should not underestimate this threat. I admit that doing this in a way that preserves fundamental freedoms is not easy, and I don't claim to have the answer. Consider freedom of movement: few people seriously deny the need for passport checks on international borders.

Literal exact argument every country that does censorship has said.

This keeps coming up in spaces like this, and makes me wonder just how aware of what's happening people are. Do you think that the content is being censored? Even the platform isn't being censored, it's just that the current owners won't be allowed to own it.

That's it. It isn't regulation of speech, it's regulation of commerce, which is entirely within the rights of the US Congress to regulate.

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