this post was submitted on 27 Jul 2024
145 points (97.4% liked)

News

23310 readers
5390 users here now

Welcome to the News community!

Rules:

1. Be civil


Attack the argument, not the person. No racism/sexism/bigotry. Good faith argumentation only. This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban. Do not respond to rule-breaking content; report it and move on.


2. All posts should contain a source (url) that is as reliable and unbiased as possible and must only contain one link.


Obvious right or left wing sources will be removed at the mods discretion. We have an actively updated blocklist, which you can see here: https://lemmy.world/post/2246130 if you feel like any website is missing, contact the mods. Supporting links can be added in comments or posted seperately but not to the post body.


3. No bots, spam or self-promotion.


Only approved bots, which follow the guidelines for bots set by the instance, are allowed.


4. Post titles should be the same as the article used as source.


Posts which titles don’t match the source won’t be removed, but the autoMod will notify you, and if your title misrepresents the original article, the post will be deleted. If the site changed their headline, the bot might still contact you, just ignore it, we won’t delete your post.


5. Only recent news is allowed.


Posts must be news from the most recent 30 days.


6. All posts must be news articles.


No opinion pieces, Listicles, editorials or celebrity gossip is allowed. All posts will be judged on a case-by-case basis.


7. No duplicate posts.


If a source you used was already posted by someone else, the autoMod will leave a message. Please remove your post if the autoMod is correct. If the post that matches your post is very old, we refer you to rule 5.


8. Misinformation is prohibited.


Misinformation / propaganda is strictly prohibited. Any comment or post containing or linking to misinformation will be removed. If you feel that your post has been removed in error, credible sources must be provided.


9. No link shorteners.


The auto mod will contact you if a link shortener is detected, please delete your post if they are right.


10. Don't copy entire article in your post body


For copyright reasons, you are not allowed to copy an entire article into your post body. This is an instance wide rule, that is strictly enforced in this community.

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
 

In a fresh broadside against one of the world’s most popular technology companies, the Justice Department late Friday accused TikTok of harnessing the capability to gather bulk information on users based on views on divisive social issues like gun control, abortion and religion.

Government lawyers wrote in documents filed to the federal appeals court in Washington that TikTok and its Beijing-based parent company ByteDance used an internal web-suite system called Lark to enable TikTok employees to speak directly with ByteDance engineers in China.

TikTok employees used Lark to send sensitive data about U.S. users, information that has wound up being stored on Chinese servers and accessible to ByteDance employees in China, federal officials said.

One of Lark’s internal search tools, the filing states, permits ByteDance and TikTok employees in the U.S. and China to gather information on users’ content or expressions, including views on sensitive topics, such as abortion or religion. Last year, the Wall Street Journal reported TikTok had tracked users who watched LGBTQ content through a dashboard the company said it had since deleted.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] catloaf@lemm.ee 79 points 3 months ago (11 children)

Let's be clear, though, all major companies do this. Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, even non-social media like Amazon. They all track users in this way. TikTok is just making the news because it's controlled by China, who has an adversarial relationship with the US.

[–] braindefragger@lemmy.world 24 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (7 children)

Let's be clear, though, all major companies do this. Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, even non-social media like Amazon. They all track users in this way.

I’ve never actually seen it argued, yet it’s brought up every time like it is. You’d have to be under a rock the last 20 years to think that’s not the case.

We all understand that the solution is not banning one app, but instead setting rules all apps have to follow. But here we are and just because US companies are doing it, doesn’t somehow make it OK TikTok is.

Why?

The concern is ultimately influence. TikTok , controlled by China, was easily able to influence their users to take action when the initial talks of banning the app occurred. The data collection mentioned in this article is just one of many concerns that make up a much larger concern.

[–] audiomodder@lemmy.blahaj.zone 3 points 3 months ago

I think it’s twofold. There is an influence concern, but I think it’s more that the US doesn’t feel like it can lean on TikTok to push their propaganda while it very clearly does on other social media platforms. I also think that there’s a monetary thing. Congress doesn’t have an issue with American companies doing it because the companies make a ton of money selling influence and advertising data. Congress doesn’t like the fact that those advertising dollars aren’t going to US billionaires

load more comments (6 replies)
load more comments (9 replies)