I want to see what TikTok is about but also want to retain some privacy. If its on F-droid, playstore or as a APK I don’t mind.
I want to see what TikTok is about but also want to retain some privacy. If its on F-droid, playstore or as a APK I don’t mind.
I think the difference is that ultimately China (the government, not it’s people) is an enemy of the “wester alliance” - “the west”, if you will. You can work, and even cooperate, with an enemy to a degree, but you don’t let them into your house. It’s pretty basic at it’s core. TikTok is from a simplistic POV, is at the whims of the Chinese government - much like Facebook/Insta/Snap are to the US government although to a much lesser extent. We don’t worry about FB/Insta/Snap because they operate within the “western” jurisdiction and are “trusted” within their domain.
Being rational also requires you take real-life risks into consideration. This would be like saying “why don’t you treat your friends the same way you treat the local crackhead when he walks through your store? He’s just there to buy essentials” - yes, he may be there to actually buy things, but he’s much more likely to do something nefarious than your known friends.
95% Chinese people approve of their government, according to a Harvard study conducted over 16 (or 20?) years and statistical sampling of over 30k people (which accounts for over a billion people easily). China’s people very much view and understand the Western imperialist atrocities, and do not want to see a third Opium War again. They are already viewing their public demonisation caused during COVID by Trump and rightwingers, and viewing the crap Western propaganda media apparatus throws at them by faking Xinjiang anti terrorism measures as a genocide (that does not exist).
They do not work under any trusted domain, and people use them while being data raped due to network effect. I need WhatsApp due to the same reason, and have it sandboxed.
I would love to know when China bombed people using metadata gathered using phones and computers, because one thing I am certain about, is that USA has done it multiple times (https://www.wired.co.uk/article/google-project-maven-drone-warfare-artificial-intelligence), and former CIA director Hayden proudly said “we kill people based on metadata”. If anything, China has never genocided, neither on its territory, nor on foreign territory.
USA and Anglosphere, however, has done multiple genocides and foreign interventions in the past 5+ centuries, essentially modern history, and has plenty overreach across the world with its 800+ basecamps around the world, not to mention the 14 Eyes + Japan + Israel surveillance network with Big Tech and the propaganda news media apparatus of USAGM + CFR + Bilderberg + Murdoch outlets.
So, what are these real life risks that China, out of my jurisdiction, out of concern, with no warmongering and imperialist interests, has on me? Or for that matter, on anyone?