Senators push to declassify TikTok Intel, hold public hearing ahead of ban vote | Hacker News Reader

Senators push to declassify TikTok Intel, hold public hearing ahead of ban vote

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22 pointsrntn11 comments

I’d love to see some of this data, because despite all the Senators pointing at the terms of service where it says “we collect your data”, none of it really shows anything beyond what any other company operating in the US does. Including the many other Chinese companies that do so already and will continue to do so, if you consider those to be a foreign threat or whatever.

This isn't solely about data collection, that is a distraction. A very effective distraction given that privacy issues are like catnip to HN.

> And [Marco Rubio, R-FL] cited the algorithm used by TikTok to determine which content is served up to U.S. users as a key reason why Congress needs to act. "That algorithm in a moment of conflict or an ongoing basis can be altered in order to drive certain messages, to divide Americans, to destabilize our politics, to influence policymakers, to denigrate policymakers, to tear our country apart, and China clearly wants to achieve that."

It's pretty funny that we have sitting US Senators sabre rattling against one of our largest trading partners, accusing them of potentially being able to do to us what we have absolutely done to them.

https://www.reuters.com/world/us/trump-launched-cia-covert-i...

Something I wonder is why couldn't the American tech industry, with their far greater reach and capabilities, make an effective TikTok clone? Why can we not compete with a silly app that people share videos on? Are the Chinese just that much better than us?

Looking at clones (and earlier attempts like Vine) they feel very… well, American! Like how a British crime series feel different to US one. To get TikTok with more of the American-feel look at Instagram (through it is a clone so not all the way American).

There's also the whole security / privacy aspect. As a non-American I'm not going to put more eggs into the US intelligence gathering basket than I have to. Do I trust the Chinese more? No, not really, but have they historically or in leaks from whistleblowers shown to use my data as a weapon against me or other Europeans? No, but the US have. Multiple times. And collaborating with my government to do so even.

Last but not least. Far greater tech capabilities? You make that sound like a truth set in stone, but is it really? If it was, TikTok wouldn't be where it is at IMO. Tesla wouldn't be the car with most faults in Germany's comprehensive TUV report of used cars 2-3 years old. Etc.

In short, IMO, the US isn't better. It is where it is strictly because of three things: Size, money and political pressure and right now we see the US trying to use at least two out of those three: The size of its market and politics to strangle TikTok. In my book that is if not a plus for TikTok then at least a minus for any US made app trying to compete.

Vine existed 4 years before tiktok and was hugely popular with the younger crowd, at least until Twitter bought & buried it.

I don't understand why Twitter (now X) never bothered to re-launch Vine after TikTok's success. The brand, I think, still has some power. Vine could have easily been TikTok if they would've expanded the platform more.

Exactly. Vine was TikTok, but with less sophisticated matching. Instagram has Reels, though, which is quite popular.

Instagram Reels is a successful clone

Sure, Google tried. Nobody seems to really like it?

I think a lot of the allure of it is your feed isn't curated by US intelligence agencies.

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