TikTok ban?

[notabitail]

This be true? Now I am going to disable Siri…if I can.

I mean, do top generals leave their phone outside when discussing strategy? How do we know they can hear our conversations?

I wouldn’t put it past them, but just wondering.

Siri can be disabled but not removed from an iPhone.

 

[notabitail]

They use a different type, don't they, specially made? I'd honestly be surprised if it weren't in some part sourced from China, nearly everything is nowadays, even things that definitely shouldn't be.
And unfortunately, anything can be hacked by someone.

They probably use some kind of modified Android phone. Or no phone at all.

Probably contains China and/or foreign parts considering most chip fabs are overseas.

 

[OrpingtonManiac]

They definitely listen. People talk about certain topics and then have ads pop up for those topics all the time. But you can disable the mic and/or listening privileges as well as targeted ads on most apps

Yeah, its super Creepy when that happens

 

[ShrekDawg]

Yeah, its super Creepy when that happens

Exactly

 

[tripletfeb]

They use a different type, don't they, specially made? I'd honestly be surprised if it weren't in some part sourced from China, nearly everything is nowadays, even things that definitely shouldn't be.
And unfortunately, anything can be hacked by someone.

Some type of burner phone but more secure than that. And yes, I'm sure it's still from China

 

[Daisy June]

I support the ban but not for the reasons it's being banned (aka the whole China thing. No, China is not using tiktok to spy on us or whatever the heck. Get your sinophobia in check and do some research).

The app is harmful because kids and teens and even adults are so obsessed with it that there is basically no literacy of any kind online anymore. We have all these "influencers" ( ) giving people straight up misinformation, sometimes dangerous, and people can't, I don't know, think for themselves and research whether it's actually true or not. Armchair diagnoses of mental illness of total strangers based on nothing and etc... It's kind of dystopian.

Plus, can't you all (not anyone here; just tiktok users in general), I dunno, find hobbies? Instead of watching hundreds of 30 second clips for hours on end? So many people who use tiktok act like it's the end of the world or a violation of their rights or something, that they won't be able to waste time on that app anymore. I've seen straight up tantrums online by teenagers who could literally just pick up a book or go outside or literally anything else instead.

I've always hated tiktok. Sometimes I watch funny tiktok compilations on youtube because yeah, there are some actually funny videos on there. But the entire app is/was a cesspool. So I say good riddance.

I agree completely that TikTok has taken too much from our children's lives and many adults' lives as well. At the end of my teaching career, I taught middle school, and the students were obsessed with getting discovered on the platform, while others could think of nothing more than the entertainment of it. I cannot agree, however, with the idea that the government of China is not spying on users. They certainly spied on me in my classroom during 2018 and 2019 when I taught students in Beijing how to speak English. We were neck-deep into teaching the language and the culture. Three of my long-time students were taken off my schedule immediately following each one telling me, during our separate sessions, something about their Christmas joy. This was when it came to light that Beijing banned Christmas trees. Coincidence? I know not.

 

[TOMTE]

I agree completely that TikTok has taken too much from our children's lives and many adults' lives as well. At the end of my teaching career, I taught middle school, and the students were obsessed with getting discovered on the platform, while others could think of nothing more than the entertainment of it. I cannot agree, however, with the idea that the government of China is not spying on users. They certainly spied on me in my classroom during 2018 and 2019 when I taught students in Beijing how to speak English. We were neck-deep into teaching the language and the culture. Three of my long-time students were taken off my schedule immediately following each one telling me, during our separate sessions, something about their Christmas joy. This was when it came to light that Beijing banned Christmas trees. Coincidence? I know not.

What does that have to do with tiktok though?

 

[Daisy June]

What does that have to do with tiktok though?

If you read my original post, you will see that I have first-hand experience on which I base my opinion. TikTok originated in China. During 2018 and 2019, I taught back-to-back online classes to Chinese students through VIP Kids which is located in Beijing. Nobody here was talking about TikTok when I first saw an ad about this platform. It was during a teaching break while I was looking over the VIP Kids website. I saw many peculiar things that surpass what I have shared. Once I became completely convinced of my concerns, I closed my schedule and let my last contract run out, losing income but gaining back my privacy.

 

[TOMTE]

Even IF China was using TikTok to spy on us— what's with the laser focus on it, compared to Facebook/Meta which has been selling our data to China for years? Is it because TT is a Chinese company and FB is American? That's what I don't get.

I'm copypasting the following from somebody I follow on another site:

"Mark Zuckerberg the founder and CEO of Meta, lobbied our congress with lots of money to make TikTok go away under the guise of national security. The allegation was that TikTok COULD hand our data over to the Chinese.

Never mind the fact a news article from 2018 confirms that Facebook literally does that, and the Cambridge Atlantica data breach happened, and that you cannot even think about something without getting an advertisement for it on Facebook."

 

[TOMTE]

I won't claim to know much about the Chinese govt. Because I don't. I will repeat though, that you need to weigh weather your concerns are rational and grounded in truth, or a product of sinophobia.