r/technology • u/longiner • Jan 18 '25

Social Media As US TikTok users move to RedNote, some are encountering Chinese-style censorship for the first time

https://edition.cnn.com/2025/01/16/tech/tiktok-refugees-rednote-china-censorship-intl-hnk/index.html
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u/triedpooponlysartred Jan 19 '25 edited Jan 19 '25

So again this is not a national security issue. It's a consumer exploitation issue. The fact that the consumer exploitation could lead to a national security issue and yet they hate their own population so much that they would rather try and play corporate cronyism than lift a finger to introduce consumer protections makes the 'security issue' moot. The solution to this problem is not banning tiktok or rednote. It is legislating and instituting proper consumer protections, and then appropriately punishing all violators- both foreign and domestic. The security issue claim is fake fear mongering with the oligarchs wanting to exploit the general population unchecked and then complain when their competition does the same thing.

Edit: And again, you say it's a significant difference when it is a foreign adversary working through American companies, except our political system literally got screwed over by it for the last 8 years minimum. The idea that it wasn't so bad is bunk. Russia's influence on our politics grew significantly specifically because we allowed a domestic company to do this exact same nonsense. Addressing it as a security issue involves addressing all of it. Not just playing kingmaker in an overtly predatory market.

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u/[deleted] Jan 19 '25

Your last point just shows how serious the issue is. Russia was able to cause all that mayhem on a domestic platform. Imagine if they wanted to try the same thing on an app that China could influence.

To your first point, I absolutely agree. But politics and corruption have caused the needle to barely move at all on the issue you're highlighting. I'd sign up for that bill. That bill isn't anywhere near the President's desk to be signed, so we're just talking wishlists. So I'm wrong because I'm not shitting on a bill that fixes one issue, but doesn't effectively fix the broader issue?

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u/triedpooponlysartred Jan 19 '25

I mean, I'd say you're right on all your stances except for accepting the explanation that it's a security issue when it isn't. At least not one in the sense that the legislature is trying to claim. 

I mean I get what you're saying, the Chinese government is not the friend of the American people. That's fair. But the American oligarchy are also not the friends of the American people. I similarly wouldn't accept an excuse that China or Russia banning Facebook and Twitter from operating there is being done in the interest of 'security'. It's for market capture and isolationism. Over here we would say that the Chinese government does it specifically to reduce their populations exposure to the outside world in order to have more control over their own propaganda. 

Why would we buy an argument of 'it's in the interest of national security' when they do it here if it's something we've been specifically taught to balk at and be critical of such government overreach and placing limitations on access to outside sources of information when other countries did the exact same thing?