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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsSenator urges Apple, Google to remove TikTok from app stores
AxiosDriving the news: In a letter addressed to Apple CEO Tim Cook and Google CEO Sundar Pichai, Bennet urges both leaders to boot TikTok immediately, calling the popular video-sharing app "an unacceptable threat to the national security of the United States."
Why it matters: Bennet's letter marks the first time a member of Congress has suggested TikTok, owned by Chinese company ByteDance, should not be available for download via the Google Play or Apple App store.
What they're saying: "No company subject to [Chinese Communist Party] dictates should have the power to accumulate such extensive data on the American people or curate content to nearly a third of our population," Bennet wrote in the letter.
Hugh_Lebowski
(33,643 posts)atreides1
(16,079 posts)Below is a short list of unacceptable threats to the national security:
Marjorie Taylor Green
Jim Jordan
Matt Gaetz
Lauren Bobert
Andy Biggs
Paul Gosar-Nazi Advocate and White Supremacist
Scott Perry
These people are more of a threat then an app.
Sympthsical
(9,074 posts)Let that sink in. They know it's not great for kids. But for American kids? Design the algorithm so they spend hours and hours on it.
I'm just not sure how it'd work, disappearing a service as popular as that one. I get the argument and even mostly support it - a foreign, adversarial government gathering U.S. citizen data and controlling what information and media American citizens will be exposed to.
The CCP isn't going to leave that power alone.
TikTok is pretty problematic. Just not sure how they'll work this one out.
And I don't think we should be limiting this to TikTok. Congress needs to go after Google, Facebook, and other tech behemoths and tackle data collection. It's a serious problem and plants the seeds for future authoritarian instruments against the people. (Remember period tracking apps?) This should've been done 10 years ago, but guess who donates tons of money to politics, journalists, and floats job offers to family and friends of politicians?
It ain't McDonald's.
Google isn't donating to political think tanks and publications because they just really, really love Jonah Goldberg.
LuvLoogie
(7,011 posts)There are many large social justice communities interacting and sharing information. Artisans, craftsmen, artists. Foodies, gardeners, etc.
The good content can only spread more good. The hateful content and bigots get exposed and opposed.
PortTack
(32,773 posts)Hateful bigots and bots. Remove TikTok then remove twitter and meta too!!
keithbvadu2
(36,823 posts)Do little Kyley Ritttenhouse and the republicans approve of this 'censorship'?
Mad_Machine76
(24,414 posts)over Tik-Tok. It's not like China is literally force-feeding us Communist China-sponsored content or something.
Bootlace
(55 posts)It's about the app collecting your information. There was a hearing where it was confirmed that the tiktok app records your keystrokes on other apps...like passwords and credit card info. I'm too old to fully understand how it all works but that is creepy if true. I don't do tiktok.
Mad_Machine76
(24,414 posts)But what's the national security angle? I mean, I get why it shouldn't be on government devices (stuff like that isn't even usually allowed anyway), but I don't understand why it's a national security issue otherwise.
Bootlace
(55 posts)I'm not techie enough to fully understand.
Polybius
(15,428 posts)Even when Republicans were, I was all for the ban.
PortTack
(32,773 posts)Polybius
(15,428 posts)But I suspect that the spying is real.
PortTack
(32,773 posts)Little mark zuckerburg!
Lancero
(3,003 posts)If it was privacy concerns, we'd be taking our own companies to task too.
The lack of such action though shows that it's not a desire protect the privacy of Americans. That we're focusing on a Chinese company while excluding American owned companies who do the same exact thing is nothing more that blatant sinophobia.
Trump was called a racist - and rightly so! - for starting this charge. Why applaud these actions now?