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F-Droid is even more locked down than the App Store, and even if they turned it into the default app store then Android would still be riddled with malware.

As to how the Android users keep acquiring malware, I have no idea whether it’s from the Play Store, or if they download free apk files of paid apps, or if they download it through ads or from emails or whatever. I just know I have to help fix them regularly, and if iOS is forced to open up then iPhones will suffer from the same malware issues that you see with OSX/Windows/Android.

Android also have a lot of malware issues. I’ve had to help factory reset Android phones quite a few times because friends and family ended up getting spammed with sex notifications and had their search engine hijacked. Windows and OSX suffers from the same problems. The reason these platforms suffer from malware, while iOS does not, is because they allow third-party installations.

Let’s compare malware on Windows, OSX, Android vs iOS, shall we?

Why are you, tech-savvy users, forcing Apple to allow third-party app stores/installations, which would no doubt lead to malware like we see on Windows, Macs, and Android?

I and my software friends/colleagues might be capable of avoiding this malware (assuming you don’t consider Zoom and such to be malware), but my family and everyone else I know are not. I suspect 70+% of the user base could easily be tricked into installing malware that would spam them with sex notifications, hijack their search engine, etc.

> TikTok takes the content you have seen and implicitly shown that you like, and shows you diverse content that has some of the features you seemed to enjoy, while it learns from that.

In my case the recommendations had nothing to do with what I had liked or shown interest in. It was equivalent to visiting Reddit’s /r/popular, which might appeal to most people, but from an algorithmic perspective then there’s nothing impressive about it. Like I also mentioned in another comment, I think there’s nothing wrong with this approach, I just don’t understand how people can be impressed by it from a technical point of view.

> If you are looking to fetishise young Asian women, then maybe you are on the wrong type of website (and: maybe you shouldn't do this).

I was just trying to conduct the most simple experiment imaginable to see whether it was actually capable of detecting what I showed interest in and do so in a way that I could easily verify the results. What I was looking for in the experiment represent perhaps 20% of the userbase, yet it was still incapable of displaying a single post that matched what I was trying to achieve (because the feed just show what they believe is interesting in your area). I could also have tried to achieve something more complex, like train TikTok to show skateboarding videos (which might represent less than 0.001% of their videos), but I figured I’d try with the easiest thing imaginable first (which it failed at).

And I fail to see why there’s anything wrong with being interested in watching content of people within a certain age group, or gender, or nationality..

If I were a TikTok user then I’d surely hope that they were able to recommend my videos to people that were interested in the kind of content I posted (because that would open up a lot of possibilities, like meeting people with similar interests, selling products, etc.)

Are you implying that the only valid use case for liking specific types of videos is sexual gratification?

I’d say there are countless of valid use cases where this is relevant. Maybe you normally live in (or plan to travel to, or just curious about) X country but TikTok is incapable of understanding you’re only interested in videos from there. Maybe you enjoy watching 20-something year old Asian girls dance, maybe you enjoy watching 20-something white guys skateboarding, maybe you enjoy watching guys with sixpack exercise, maybe you enjoy watching party/club videos, maybe you enjoy watching people cook cakes, etc.

YouTube and Instagram is easily capable of recommending whatever content you show interest in.. TikTok on the other hand feels like the reddit’s /r/popular experience which simply looks at your location and recommend a list of random stuff that people in same area have shown interest in (and completely fail to integrate your interests into this feed). I’m not saying there’s anything wrong with that, but all this hype about their algorithm makes no sense.

TikTok’s recommendation system is absurdly overrated.

I tried to make an account where I only watched (in full length)/searched for/liked videos of a specific gender/race/age group.. yet even after liking over a hundred videos, then 100% of the videos they suggested to me were the wrong gender/race/age group. YouTube on the other hand is capable of recommending the correct videos after watching just a couple. Instagram’s recommendations are also far more accurate (although I dislike the fact that Instagram mostly recommend popular users).

It’s very easy (and shouldn’t take long) to conduct this experiment, just make sure that the race you target doesn’t represent the majority of the users in your proximity. For instance, if you’re in Norway then try to get TikTok to recommend Asian girls aged 20-35.. sounds like it should be easy, right?

Tencent/WeChat also control what you see in your feeds. I often notice when I share information/pictures related to Hong Kong/Xinjiang then my posts doesn’t always appear in my friends feeds (because the image hash/phrase cause the post to be shadowbanned). Their approach is quite evil because it will make you think people might not like your post (since they don’t “like” it) when in fact they simply can’t see it.

To bypass the filter then I slightly modify images to change their hash, or record video of the video/image/text. Maybe soon they’ll start making fake likes from friends so that people can’t use inactivity as a way of detecting shadowbans, or maybe they’ll make the posts only visible to a small subset of friends.

What are they gonna do? Ban Google, Facebook, et al.? Oh wait, they’ve already been banning foreign companies for decades.

Or maybe they’ll force foreign companies to give up ownership to Chinese locals? Oh wait, they’ve already been doing that for decades (see GM, Volkswagen, Toyota, etc.)

Or maybe they’ll force foreign companies to let Chinese local companies to take control of their Chinese operations? Oh wait, they’ve already been doing that for decades (see Apple iCloud, Blizzard, etc.)

The value TikTok brings to the CCP cannot be understated.

> ByteDance has had a party committee since 2017 and is headed by CCP secretary and company editor-in-chief Zhang Fuping (張輔評), reported Human Rights Watch. Members of the committee hold regular gatherings at which they study speeches by Chinese Chairman Xi Jinping (習近平) and "pledge to follow the party in technological innovation."

> In addition, ByteDance on April 25, 2019, signed a strategic cooperation agreement with the Ministry of Public Security's Press and Publicity Bureau (公安部新聞宣傳局) in Beijing. The agreement was billed as "aiming to give full play to the professional technology and platform advantages of Toutiao and Tiktok in big data analysis," strengthen the creation and production of "public security new media works," boost "network influence and online discourse power," and enhance "public security propaganda, guidance, influence, and credibility," among other aspects.

https://www.taiwannews.com.tw/en/news/3982027

The entire world gains if the CCP collapse. If we weren’t willing to make sacrifices then Nazi Germany would likely be the world’s superpower today.

I personally think it’s better to make financial sacrifices now and try to isolate China from the rest of the world, instead of waiting for them to do to Taiwan, Laos, Thailand, Japan, etc. as they have done to Mongolia, Tibet, Xinjiang, Hong Kong, etc.

I think the people that expected this to happen are the same people who thought he’d succeed in building the wall. Although it probably has accelerated the need for automated manufacturing capabilities.

I’m sure there are many who believed this, but I’m also sure there are many like me who supported it solely because it would hurt China, knowing full well that the companies would just move their manufacturing to Vietnam, India, Mexico, etc.

Funny, I was thinking the exact opposite. It’s the perfect way to isolate China from the rest of the world, and unless they start going after allies then I’ll be cheering them on.

This is also why 40%-Tencent-owned Epic Games have been attacking Apple non-stop ever since they purposely got themselves banned from the App Store to mount a PR lawsuit campaign to try to force Apple to allow third-party app installations, which coincidentally happened right after Trump signed an executive order that would ban Tencent’s WeChat.

I often hear people wonder how Biden would deal with China - to those I say look at what he and Obama accomplished (with regard to China) during their 8 years, and you’ll have your answer.

Passing laws can also easily be overturned and ignored, and usually amount to nothing because the process is so slow.

Trump’s actions (and China’s reactions) have rightfully turned CCP’s into the worlds greatest enemy. It’s not just the tariffs that will force companies to leave China (and they’re unlikely to return once they’ve set up base elsewhere, and once India, Vietnam, Taiwan, etc. establish manufacturing hubs capable of assembling high tech), you also have Huawei not being allowed to use Android and chips with US tech (which will basically kill their phones) and being blocked from building 5G networks (even paying other nations to block them as well), China Mobile being blocked from offering services in US, HK special status being revoked, pushing for China to lose their WTO developing country status, continuously reminding the world that China are responsible for the Wuhan virus. Trump also managed to force Universal Postal Union to allow countries to raise postal rates (something China have been abusing, forcing other countries to cover shipping costs for cheap junk brought on aliexpress), his administration also requested Meng Wanzhou’s arrest in Canada which resulted in China arbitrarily arresting Canadian citizens, he was the US President to speak directly with Taiwan’s President since 1979, he made the largest arms sale to Taiwan in the past few decades, TAIPEI Act and Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act was signed under his administration, and he’s now banning TikTok and WeChat.. I could probably find many more things to add to the list, but my point is that unlike previous administrations (and other countries), he’s actually doing something meaningful to stand up to China.

I disagree. They’ve done a lot of economic damage to China (besides war then it’s probably the best way we have to combat the CCP), and they’ve forced companies to move their manufacturing out of China. Even high-end tech stuff like the iPhone is starting to get assembled outside of China.

In response to the tariffs, China also ended their domestic ownership rules (requiring 50% ownership by Chinese companies) for auto companies and financial institutions.

This is why I’ve been supporting Apple and their App Store. It’s the most effective way to isolate an evil, authoritarian regime.

Right now there’s zero reason to believe that the administration would target apps outside of China, and as long as that continue to be the case then we should cheer them on and be grateful we finally have a world leader willing and capable of standing up to China.

EU have already ordered Facebook (and others) to restrict data sent from EU to US. If US started banning EU tech companies (like China are doing) then it would of course make sense for EU to do the same to US tech companies.

This is of course unlikely to happen as EU and US fairly operate in the free market.

Biden appear to be pro-China and has gone on record saying he would end Trump’s China tariffs.

Here’s a HNer claiming Namecheap dumped his personal info without even informing him of having done so: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18063667

Relevant Lobsters thread: https://lobste.rs/s/nfjifq/v_update_june_2020

I also tried after hearing people on HN speak so highly of their recommendation system.. I only watched (in full length)/searched for/liked videos of a specific gender/race/age group.. yet even after liking over a hundred videos, then 100% of the videos they suggested to me were the wrong gender/race/age group. YouTube on the other hand is capable of recommending the correct videos after watching just a couple.

It’s very easy to conduct this experiment, just make sure that the race you target doesn’t represent the majority of the users in your proximity. For instance, if you’re in Norway then try to get TikTok to recommend Asian girls aged 20-35.. sounds like it should be easy, right?

I thought Vine was designed in California as well.

Not sure why you’d think Facebook isn’t a national security concern for other countries. I mean in China they outright banned Facebook, and EU have ordered Facebook (and others) to restrict data sent from EU to US.

The only thing unique about this case is the fact that USA might ban the app, which is fair considering China does the same to US tech companies.

You don’t have botnets on iOS, but you do have the problem on OSX (can find many instances by googling it). The reason OSX have this problem is because they allow third-party app stores/installations. If Apple was forced to open up iOS then iPhones would also end up having all the same malware problems you see on Windows, OSX and Android.

The alternatives are all the other platforms that allow third-party app installations/stores, such as Windows, Android and OSX, all of which have a huge problem with malware.

Their annual report does not make this distinction: https://s3-ap-southeast-2.amazonaws.com/ad-aspi/2019-10/ASPI...

But it’s really besides the point. Instead of attacking the authors or their sponsors, perhaps we should focus on the content instead. What’s happening here would be equivalent to me attacking you or the parent (and vice versa) for having a comment history pushing CCP talking points.

Their sponsors also include Google, Microsoft, Oracle, etc. who would likely prefer not to escalate the ‘new cold war’ since it would hurt their profits.

The purpose is not to win the minds of Chinese citizens. There’s little that can be done to counter a lifetime of propaganda, even more so when its citizens obtain most of their information from heavily censored platforms controlled by the CCP.

I’ve had success with an iPod. It’s very cheap, the size is perfect, and it’s just as fast as the latest iPhones.

It does everything a normal iPhone does (and I’ve never encountered an app that didn’t work), except you have no SIM so you can’t make regular calls, send/receive SMS, or use data. This can of course be a problem at times, so I still have a cheap backup phone that’s usually powered off, and often left at home unless I’m meeting someone or need to use Google/Apple maps. From a privacy perspective you also benefit from its lack of SIM card since it doesn’t ping cell towers.