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Comment by bryceacc | Hacker News Reader

it really is just the foreign aspect of it. the meta apps, google apps, uber, etc all do the exact same things. They just aren't owned by a foreign nation

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For most of us, they (Meta, Google, Tik Tok) are all foreign.

I think this is rather naive. I agree that the foreign aspect is an important component but let's also recognize that TikTok's success is because they are so successful at this data collection and manipulation. There's two reasons to target TikTok specifically. 1) Foreign influence 2) they are top dog.

Let's also recognize that Uber is not collecting data on what you watch and what social activities you participate in. Google and Meta are much better examples than Uber. But Google and Meta have also not captivated the attention economy of people the same way as TikTok has. You go after the worst offenders and it is clear that TikTok is the worst offender before you include the foreign aspect.

> But Google and Meta have also not captivated the attention economy of people the same way as TikTok has. You go after the worst offenders and it is clear that TikTok is the worst offender before you include the foreign aspect.

How is it "clear"? TikToks functionality in this matter seems to have barely scratched the surface of what Meta, Google and Twitter had been doing for years.

>Let's also recognize that Uber is not collecting data on what you watch and what social activities you participate in

sure about that? How about these "social activities"

https://money.cnn.com/2014/11/25/technology/uber-prostitutes...

they're also not as inherently addictive. TikTok is the best drug in town, nobody does it better. can't get my fiancée off the damn thing

Instagram wasn't much different back when it was a new thing. I don't remember Facebooks launch that good, but somehow I have an impression that it was just as addictive, until people got used to it and got bored.

have you used both? Instagram has improved over the years but TikTok still blows it away. it's an infinite feed of visually attractive bullshit that you can scroll through smooth as butter—the ultimate cyberdrug.

Meta, google, uber, etc should be considered equivalent to hostile foreign powers and there are 194 countries in which they report to foreign intelligence service.

I would be more comfortable with all that collection if it remained in China, a far away government that has much less control over me than my own. However, the data they collect is shared with and used by the same domestic corporations and government agencies.

What a naive thinking. Of course China has control over you through TikTok. What if they will modify an algorithm to make you vote for right people that they want you to vote? You’d think that they don’t have any control over you when in fact you’ll be used as their useful idiot

I am not a product of any corporate or government controlled social media. However if I had to be one, being influenced by China rather than US corporations seems better. The two US parties have no substantive difference on economic and foreign policy. So I can't see why the CCP would care which one wins which election.

Spoken like a perfect, useful idiot...

We are all useful idiots to different extent in this system. I have become less useful and less idiotic as I have grown wiser. I am less worried about Chinese propaganda and manipulation than the domestic sort which is much more powerful and impacting to my life.

Why not both?

>The two US parties have no substantive difference on economic and foreign policy

.............. what.

I can't believe how wrong that statement is:

https://www.jec.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/democrats/2016/6...

https://www.thebalancemoney.com/democrats-vs-republicans-whi...

https://thehill.com/policy/international/516856-republicans-...

Yeah, better to be influenced by Chineese, then start to belive what you see, then start to think how they want you to think, and then vote for people they want you to vote. Perfect useful idiot, congratulations.

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