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Comment by RandallBrown | Hacker News Reader

> what behaviors/patterns Tik Tok employs which set them apart from their US-based competitors

Isn't it based on concerns that TikTok could be spying for China?

I think those are the boilerplate concerns. The real concerns are that TikTok is a dopamine manipulation system that’s better than anything Meta et al could even hope to dream up, and this system can be/is used to influence public opinion and general societal preferences.

Based on what? The practices of all these social media companies seems the same and is dictated by the capabilities of devices and by the market.

I think it's sort of assumed that most large companies in China, if not totally controlled by the government, are at least heavily involved with it.

So even if Meta or Google are collecting info, it's not for the Chinese government (and being US based, the US Government has a bit more say in what they do.)

People raise the same objection about American tech companies given the open door relationship that seems to be between going from the intelligence community to being in a position of power in those companies. Should every other country ban American tech?

It depends on how much you view the government as a "bad guy". Being an American, I would say other countries have less to worry about than with the Chinese government.

Of course I don't really know and have no strong opinion about places banning TikTok. In general I think it's a pretty silly policy.

Sure, but this is a question about an American government banning services. Clearly, American governments are not concerned that they might be leaking data to their own intelligence services. They're doing that on purpose. There is nothing out of the ordinary about a government banning foreign espionage even though they carry out their own espionage. That is basic statecraft, not really the gotcha some people on Hacker News seem to think it is.

Except there's no credible espionage from china through TikTok, but Twitter was used to destabilize middle-eastern governments which lead to a refugee crisis in Europe.

> Should every other country ban American tech?

Every american tech? No. Every american social media, yes. Especially the major countries. Why india hasn't banned foreign social media is beyond me. What's the point of banning tiktok but not facebook, twitter, etc?

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