TikTok, Facing a US Ban, Is Also Waging Legal Battles Around the World (msn.com) 19
An anonymous reader shared this report from the New York Times:
Russia fined TikTok for not removing prohibited content. The results of a presidential election in Romania were thrown out over concerns the app had been used to spread foreign influence. Albania banned TikTok for a year following the stabbing death of a teenager by another one after the two quarreled online... That was all in just the last month...
TikTok has confronted legal and political scrutiny around the world in recent years, facing outright or partial bans in at least 20 countries, as governments have grown alarmed by its ties to China and its wide influence, especially among young people... [A]s TikTok's algorithm captured attention spans around the world, it alarmed lawmakers, who say TikTok has quickly turned from a domain of cat videos and dance trends into a potentially disruptive social, political and economic force. Officials from Montana to New Zealand have warned that TikTok could be used to incite violence, spread false information and worsen mental health. Lawmakers also worry TikTok could share user data like location and browsing history with the Chinese government. Young people need to be protected from "the frightening pitfalls of the algorithm," [Albania prime minister Edi] Rama said.
TikTok lost its largest audience (India) "after India's simmering geopolitical conflict with China boiled over into hand-to-hand combat along their shared border" — resulting in a total ban in the world's single most-populous country. And the article notes TikTok is also blocked on government devices in Taiwan, Britain, Australia, France, and Canada, "as well as the executive arm of the European Union and New Zealand's Parliament..."
But "Despite the mounting scrutiny, TikTok remains incredibly popular worldwide. More than a billion people use the app every month."
TikTok has confronted legal and political scrutiny around the world in recent years, facing outright or partial bans in at least 20 countries, as governments have grown alarmed by its ties to China and its wide influence, especially among young people... [A]s TikTok's algorithm captured attention spans around the world, it alarmed lawmakers, who say TikTok has quickly turned from a domain of cat videos and dance trends into a potentially disruptive social, political and economic force. Officials from Montana to New Zealand have warned that TikTok could be used to incite violence, spread false information and worsen mental health. Lawmakers also worry TikTok could share user data like location and browsing history with the Chinese government. Young people need to be protected from "the frightening pitfalls of the algorithm," [Albania prime minister Edi] Rama said.
TikTok lost its largest audience (India) "after India's simmering geopolitical conflict with China boiled over into hand-to-hand combat along their shared border" — resulting in a total ban in the world's single most-populous country. And the article notes TikTok is also blocked on government devices in Taiwan, Britain, Australia, France, and Canada, "as well as the executive arm of the European Union and New Zealand's Parliament..."
But "Despite the mounting scrutiny, TikTok remains incredibly popular worldwide. More than a billion people use the app every month."
It will be very funny (Score:2)
when in two or three weeks donold swaps his shares in "truf soshul" for tiktok and then it immediately becomes a "national security asset" instead of "national security threat".
TikTok Single App VPN FTW (Score:1)
Re: TikTok Single App VPN FTW (Score:1)
Re: (Score:3)
Most likely they'd "ban" the app by making Apple and Google remove it from app stores. It would still work for those that had it installed already, but new people would have a harder time installing it
TikTok investigated over surveillance concerns (Score:1)
but Google, Microsoft, CloudFlare, Akamai, Facebook are just fine.
Re:TikTok investigated over surveillance concerns (Score:4, Insightful)
Domestic vs. Foreign. If the people controlling the propaganda are the same ones with political power where the propaganda is being deployed, it's fine. For the ones with political power, of course.
In addition to managing the agitprop risk, it reduces the intelligence gathering threat. Not to zero, but somewhat less than 100%.
Re:TikTok investigated over surveillance concerns (Score:4, Informative)
Surveilling teenagers dancing is not the problem. TikTok investigated over its use to manipulate a Presidential election:
1. Short time before the election, Romanian influencers received an offer to publish pro-vote videos for a payment of 1000 euros. The videos did not identify any particular candidate.
2. Once the videos were published, thousands of dormant accounts woke up and flooded the posts with likes and positive messages appealing to vote for Clin Georgescu (some unknown candidate).
3. Due to the thousands of likes/comments, the posts were promoted to viral and shown to the masses.
4. In the 2 weeks before the election, Clin Georgescu moved from 0% to the most voted candidate, winning the first round.
Clin Georgescu is the pro-Russian candidate. The payment offers were made by an agency based in South Africa. Journalists follow the traces to another agency staffed by Ukrainians emigrates living in Poland. (Romania is neighbour to Ukraine, part of NATO and a strong supporter of Ukraine against Russia.)
This is the sort of mess you can import in your country as well. Having your election driven by foreign powers.
Romania cancelled the Presidential election, which makes it look bad in terms of its democracy. Still it was possible to cancel and repeat. Do you think it would be possible to cancel and repeat an election in your country of residence? Would it be accepted by the highest court, or by the population?
Re: (Score:2)
TikTok investigated over its use to manipulate a Presidential election
Yet Twitter doesn't seem to be under investigation.
Re: (Score:3)
I'm not against investigating both. My point is TikTok is the most popular network right now and is a glaring danger, so it makes sense to start from there. I sure hope Twitter will follow.
Re: (Score:2)
The 1A issue is that a lot of Americans use TikTok and the ban effectively deplatforms them. As to the value of being on a specific social media platform, well, think of it this way: Musk bought Twitter and he didn't even want the brand or domain - just the userbase. Clearly, there's a rather significant dollar amount attached to the value of reaching a critical mass of users, so the argument that a userbase can simply go elsewhere, with no repercussions to anyone's ability to speak, is a bit of a farce.
Governments Hate Citizen Journalism (Score:3)
TikTok surged then because no one could silence it. You, the viewer, had to decide what was real and what was fake, and regardless of whether you got the distinction right, you at least had everything presented to you for you to choose. Not the government.
Banning TikTok is all about governments trying to reclaim control over the most priminent screen in the modern era.... not the movie screen... not the television screen... not even your laptop screen.... your phone's screen!
Re: (Score:1)
Even close allies of the US such as Australia are implementing age-based restrictions on social media platforms because of perceived harm to children from misinformation online. Facebook moving to a community notes model hijacked by malevolent AI bots will only accelerate this.
With this week's "mask-off" movement from Zuck, the Meta suite of platforms will converge with Twitter's level of 'enshittification' as unofficial propaganda outlets of the incoming Trump administration.
And no, I don't have a Bluesky
Re: (Score:2)
"Well know Meta and Twitter (pre-Elon) could be approached by the government and volun-told to do certain censorship and "fact-checking" initiatives, and filter out voices discussing topics that the government needed silenced, especially during the Covid pandemic. "
And does anyone doubt that Elmo will do the same right now with Xitter? And since he will have a rump position in the government, he does not even have to wait to be asked.
addicts (Score:2)
Despite the mounting scrutiny, TikTok remains incredibly popular worldwide. More than a billion people use the app every month.
That little endorphin hit is quite addictive.