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US can’t ban TikTok for security reasons while ignoring Temu, other apps, TikTok argues
(arstechnica.com)
this post was submitted on 17 Sep 2024
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This is a good point actually. That's almost like trying to ban Naruto because it's Japanese, but not banning Dragonball Z. We'l see where this goes. If they would enforce these law equally it wouldn't be as much of a concern. Overall, whether they ban TikTok or not, if as a user you don't like a said platform, just don't use it.
Yes and no. Without endorsing them, the arguments for banning Tik Tok are subtler than Chinese = security risk. The fears, however reasonable you may find them, are largely that it presents a danger of foreign information gathering of detailed behavioral/location/interest/social network information on a huge swath of the U.S. population which can be used either for intelligence purposes or targeted influence/psyops campaigns within the U.S. When you look at the history of how even relatively benign data from sources not controlled by foreign adversaries has been used for intelligence gathering, e.g. Strava runs disclosing the locations of classified military installations, these fears make a certain amount of sense.
Temu, et al., on the other hand are shopping apps that don't really lend themselves to influence campaigns in the same way (though, if they are sucking up data like all the other apps, I wouldn't be surprised if folks in the U.S. security apparatus are concerned about those as well.
Ultimately, I think the argument fails because it assumes an obligation for Congress to solve every tangentially related ill all at once where no such obligation exists.
Extremely well said, thank you.