TikTok is a "bad faith actor" and the social media app should be banned in Australia if its Chinese owner does not sell it, the Coalition's cybersecurity spokesperson says.
  • ⸻ Ban DHMO 🇦🇺 ⸻OPEnglish
    51·
    3 months ago

    I think if we’re going to ban it over concerns about another country spying on our citizens we should ban Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, WhatsApp, Snapchat, Microsoft Windows, Google and Apple. Why is US spyware okay but Chinese spyware not?

    • TinyBreak
      2·
      3 months ago

      Politically, we are aligned with the US. US (supposedly) stands for democracy, freedom, rule of law. Against, pretty big supposedly especially on the last one lately!

      China stand for Communism, authoritarianism and basically the opposite of anything the statue of liberty stands for. They are politically the “enemy” for want of a better term. And with that they are doing to the uighur population prove WHY we dont want to be in bed with them, let alone give them access to our kids algorithms.

      Let me clear: I HATE Facebook. I dont use it, and I think it should be *HEAVILY * age gated. BUT its comparing apples with oranges. Importantly too: lets not get caught in the “Well X sucks what about Y” cycle either. Tiktok is the clear and present danger. other threats can and do exist outside of it, but thats not the conversation right now.

      • ⸻ Ban DHMO 🇦🇺 ⸻OPEnglish
        2·
        3 months ago

        Don’t get me wrong I hate these apps and would like them gone. Ally or not I don’t think it is acceptable for any country (including our own) to spy on people.

      • hitmyspot
        1·
        3 months ago

        But economically, we are more aligned with China, so it’s not really a valid argument. Spying on citizenry is anti democratic, more authoritarian, so to say we align with their values and allow things from them that go against those values is ridiculous.

        Rather than banning these apps, we should regulate the use of data better. Both on an individual and aggregate level.

  • Ilandar
    2·
    3 months ago

    I’m interested to hear what younger people who use TikTok think about these proposed bans. I don’t use it myself, nor do I have any friends who use it (at least openly) but whenever I hear younger people talk about their TikTok usage it’s almost as if they are embarrassed. It reminds me of how millennials felt towards Facebook like a decade ago when we were all still using the platform but had become fully aware of how shit it was. It makes me wonder how much they would care if it disappeared overnight. All the debate in the media and government is between people who don’t even use these platforms so it’s really difficult to get an idea of how valued they actually are by their users.