• ClimateChangeAnxiety [he/him, they/them]
    ·
    1 year ago

    The problem isn’t that they’re collecting data. It’s that they’re collecting data and not giving it to US intelligence quite as easily as everyone else does

    • darkcalling [comrade/them,she/her]
      ·
      1 year ago

      I don't even think that's the problem. I'm pretty sure they're nearly fully cooperating it's just:

      1. They don't feel comfortable letting a Chinese company know their exact psy-op strategies which they need to in order to implement them for them unlike say Twitter, Facebook, etc which they trust to do this.

      2. they don't want successful Chinese brands or companies operating internationally. It threatens their existing psyops that they own 100% such as FB/Twitter/etc and gives Chinese a good name and a foot in the door with the global youth in terms of experiences with Chinese brands and properties.

      3. Propaganda value: They want to fearmonger and whip up fear about anything Chinese tech related. Chinese networking products and 5G are a threat to national security they scream, this is a threat to national security they scream. They just want to crush anything Chinese as part of their contain, encircle, and de-couple push. They do not want China being allowed to grow and interlink more with the global high-tech world and by doing this they're sending a message to vassals and everyone else.

      • MaoistLandlord [he/him]
        ·
        edit-2
        1 year ago

        TikTok is one of the best investments China made because they

        • get to collect data on their biggest rival
        • most of the information is useless for military purposes, but great for pushing junk products onto children and bored adults. Perhaps hijack political movements for social disruption
        • the US can’t outright ban it because they also profit from domestic spying and companies profit from ads and sponsorships
        • so China gets to profit off Americans and in exchange they let Americans spy on each other

        Long story short, China profits off the American surveillance state because it’s too popular for Feds to just ban completely and miss out on the intel and ad revenue

        • Dr_Gabriel_Aby [none/use name]
          ·
          1 year ago

          The funniest outcome:

          Conservatives pickup drivers that want to nuke China MacCarthur style are gonna be crying about losing a Chinese data mining machine that breaks their own brains.

        • darkcalling [comrade/them,she/her]
          ·
          1 year ago

          the US can’t outright ban it because they also profit from domestic spying and companies profit from ads and sponsorships

          They can. Considering tik-tok already gave the US a compromise and it's not exactly campaign season so Biden has no reason to posture -yet- over something like this, it seems they really want this.

          They already have domestic spying covered. By removing it they funnel people into FB, Twitter, Instagram, Youtube, and every other American corporation with NSA/CIA/FBI "former" agent filled moderation teams and profits that entirely stay within the US as well as CEO's who can be blackmailed, dragged in front of congress and humiliated, subjected to investigations and harassment if they don't play ball in how they conduct business not just in the US, but abroad and that's what the US really wants. It isn't enough to control things within their borders, they must control global discourse, they must be able to control everyone everywhere with lopsided policies and exceptions for the US and no one else.

          Recall that USAID (a CIA front) set up a social media site in Cuba for Cubans with the express intent of fomenting count-revolution. Keep in mind that other countries including Russia and China among others have expressed unease at the fact all the social media their citizens use is based in the US by companies who have CIA psyops on their teams, who white-list US bots while banning their own, who turn over data to the US but not other governments if the US doesn't wish it. That's the way the US expects things to be. They demand the right to control global discourse, to censor who they want, boost who they want, control the conversation, steer things for their benefit. And that's what this is really about. An alternative in China existing is a direct threat to that model of total global hegemonic control of online discourse, especially of smaller countries than Russia/China who have no way to field alternatives.

          Those ad dollars aren't going to vanish as most people addicted to it will go to another platform or spend time on another platform with ads. That's not even mentioning the overarching metadata collection of the NSA bulk surveillance programs which can tell you a lot of things.

          They already can do all those things, this is just cutting out any benefit to China.

          The spying and manipulation of people by natsec psyops was already happening before tik-tok was ever a thing. If they removed it, it would still continue. The teenagers using it aren't going to go all unabomber and disconnect from the net and start collecting firearms and preparing for a revolution. They'll be angry, maybe protest a little but ultimately either go to other US controlled bubble social media or use less social media in which case their information, their views are still informed by the dominant superstructure and its propaganda. There is no lose for the US here by sabotaging a rival.

          Most likely if it comes down to it the company in China will sell and take some money rather than refuse to sell and lose the entire US (plus probably domino effect on Europe which will ban it like good pawns, etc) and vassal states of same costing them a market of oh say more than half a billion people.

      • sooper_dooper_roofer [none/use name]
        ·
        1 year ago

        honestly why don't you guys just counter-psyop? I've done this

        1. have an aged reddit account
        2. constantly post anti-china stuff in a ridiculous over-the-top way
        3. ESPECIALLY in threads that are criticising the US government for the disaster-of-the-week (east palestine, the next bridge collapse, etc)
          bonus points: be some middle-aged sexpat who posts on r/china

        done it before and it always nets negative downvotes

        • sooper_dooper_roofer [none/use name]
          ·
          1 year ago

          ex: in a thread about the latest :the-pigs: incident

          "I'm black and while the US has problems China is still way worse so it might also be good to count your blessings"

          anyone who checks ur post history sees that you've made racist comments in the past and/or are a middle aged white weirdo