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Desperate TikTok lobbying effort backfires on Capitol Hill (www.bbc.com)

submitted 8 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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[–] [email protected] 12 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (3 children)

For example — last year they sent what a spy balloon over the USA in what a lot of experts believe was a test of US defence systems - weapons used to shoot down the balloon had never been used before outside of top secret test facilities. And that balloon was covered in high tech sensors and almost certainly broadcasting data in real time. There's no plausible explanation for the incident other than to find out how the US would respond.

Why does China want to know how US defence systems work? A lot of people already think there's a chance of war between the two super powers. That balloon incident didn't help things.

And what went viral on TikTok? Claims that the balloon was a actually flying over Canada and never went near US soil. Claims that it was launched by kids in the USA. Where did those claims originate from? Nobody knows, but it seems pretty coincidental. These claims were spread on other social networks too - but they went viral on TikTok alone.

That's not the only incident, it's just one of the most recent one that involved TikTok. Others have been far more serious especially in busy international waters south of China.

If Twitter's financial backing by Saudi Arabia/Qatar is ever a concern, I'm sure the US will act on that as well.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 8 months ago

Will it, though?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 8 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (1 children)

Spy balloon update

Later Thursday, Pentagon press secretary Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder said that the balloon not only did not transmit data back to China -- it never collected any.

"We're aware that it had intelligence collection capabilities, but it was our -- and it has been our -- assessment now that it did not collect while it was transiting the United States," Ryder said

[–] [email protected] 1 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Link leads to "page unavailable"

[–] [email protected] 1 points 7 months ago

Thanks, I had stripped out too much link metadata, it's working now.

[–] [email protected] -2 points 8 months ago

That's because the next couple balloons were launched by schools in the US and Canada. There was more than one balloon.