1y ago

Some ex-TikTok employees say the social media service worked closely with its China-based parent despite claims of independence

Former TikTok senior data scientist:

“I literally worked on a project that gave U.S. data to China”

“They were completely complicit in that. There were Americans that were working in upper management that were completely complicit in this.”

26 comments

Is this where we post the shocked Pikachu face? Or do they only accept Pooh bear memes?
- Nice
As an American, I would be appalled if my data were provided to the Chinese government for anything less than Meta charges to provide that info. It’s just unfair to TikTok and I believe in a free market in commoditizing the lives of human beings.
- Having raw, fined grained telemetry about virtually every action you take and that can be upgraded to collect more details at will with a new app version push is way, way different than being able to say “show this ad to people in ZIP code 12345”
- Meta actually doesn’t sell your data (this is complicated and not as good as it sounds: https://themarkup.org/the-breakdown/2021/09/02/what-does-it-actually-mean-when-a-company-says-we-do-not-sell-your-data)
  
  Ok, fine. I concede the point. Replace Meta with 50 data brokers that sell “anonymized” location data on everyone who ever downloaded a free app.
If only anyone could have known
No one is fighting for tiktok thinking it didn't share info with China. The problem is China can just buy our data from a number of data brokers. Every social media, shopping, and US website collects your info to be sold. That's the problem. The singled out tiktok bc China was collecting it free and people are learning how corrupt our US government is.
- It’s more than “your data”, it’s the use of the platform to amplify/disseminate propaganda.
  
  Welcome to every social media platform out there. Meta has done experiments on teens and helped genocides. Twitter/X is filled with Nazis and white nationalist. Truth social.... enough said. Reddit had women abusive subreddits and child porn leaks. Those are a few examples of other platforms.
  That is the problem, all of them are the same and should be under heavy regulation since they give access to children and our data. Twitter providing the Saudi government with users tweets which ends with them being arrested seems like a "your data" issue.
No one could have predicted this. (Satire)
I see Chinese in on tiktok semi regularly at least it seems.
Did the ceo lie to usa congress under oath?
Limitless Peace
- Absolutely the CEO lied, but unfortunately our government lacks the teeth to put him in jail.
  
  I wonder how this plays out if he lied under oath tbh.
Sooo... no different than Google working with the US government, then.
- Clearly false - Google is banned in China.
- Um, the difference is China is our #1 enemy?
  
  I thought that was Iran? Sorry, I have trouble keeping up with the whole "enemy-of-the-week" thing.
No shit
Anyway, let's say this is true. What can China do with this data?
Doyee
NSA just mad they don't get to plug their dedicated spyware directly into it.
That's why they want it to become US owned.
Oh my god who cares
All these comapnies have your data, which they sell to anyone willing to buy it
Including the Chinese govt
This anti-Tik Tok campaign is just jingoistic noise and makes the US no better than the CPC who censored Facebook and Twitter years ago
- Oh my god who cares
  All these comapnies have your data, which they sell to anyone willing to buy of
  Conformity is a slave mindset. Just because its done and legal does not mean its right.
  
  Nationalist fearmongering does not make you free either, fellow slave

26 comments