
Lawmakers ask US intelligence chief to investigate TikTok - zachguo
https://techcrunch.com/2019/10/24/tiktok-lamakers-national-security-threat/
======
Aperocky
> But the lawmakers say because TikTok is owned by a Beijing-based company, it
> could be compelled by the Chinese government to turn over user data — such
> as location data, cookies, metadata and more — even if it’s stored on
> servers it owns in the United States.

An analogy: To protect data from potential acquirement by the US government,
EU should shut out Google from Europe? This doesn't make sense and is
completely political. Watching politicians trying to gain brownie points and
_sound like they care_ while not actually doing anything useful hurts my eyes.

~~~
viraptor
I'm not sure which laws they're basing this on, but it's not unusual to see
countries differently. For example UK's DPA allows storing data in countries
with similar protection guarantees. I would expect that doesn't include China,
but does include Germany.

US will have more or less trust in each country.

~~~
M2Ys4U
> I'm not sure which laws they're basing this on, but it's not unusual to see
> countries differently. For example UK's DPA allows storing data in countries
> with similar protection guarantees. I would expect that doesn't include
> China, but does include Germany.

It's not the ICO that sets that rule, it's the GDPR (and prior to that, the
Data Protection Directive)

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tudorconstantin
I find it very intriguing and fascinating the market penetration speed tiktok
had:

\- developed in 200 days

\- launched in September 2016 in China

\- launched in September 2017 internationally

\- in November 2017 it's parent company spends up to $1 billion to acquire
musical.ly.

\- it presently has over 500 million MAU users (I think it has them for over a
year now, but I'm on mobile and can't find a source for this claim)

How do you think it's possible for an app appearing seemingly out of the blue
to move so fast in such a crowded and mature market like social media?

[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/TikTok](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/TikTok)

~~~
CPLX
> How do you think it's possible for an app appearing seemingly out of the
> blue to move so fast in such a crowded and mature market like social media?

Has anyone in this thread actually spent time watching Tim Tok videos and
using the app?

It’s completely addictive, the content and dynamics of the app are _great_.
It’s a really solid product and it’s not confusing why all the kids like it.

I mean I am totally open to the idea that there’s lots more going on and it’s
a nuanced situation. But let’s start with the basic facts, it’s not confusing
why it’s a giant hit.

~~~
dolessdrugs
TikTok is the first app where AI is the product.
[https://a16z.com/2018/12/03/when-ai-is-the-product-the-
rise-...](https://a16z.com/2018/12/03/when-ai-is-the-product-the-rise-of-ai-
based-consumer-apps/)

~~~
hos234
What's the Chinese Govt response to social media engament optimizing/addictive
apps been?

Do they recognize the dangers? Is there a digital well being movement
happening?

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rshnotsecure
There are some interesting results if you check the Google Analytics ID of
TikTok.

They seem to also manage a somewhat sizable portfolio of gambling sites, sites
selling knockoff Sports Jerseys, and adult videotube sites.

I am counting about 45 sites right now for UA-75850242.

Many Chinese sites seem to operate like this. I believe Huawei has about 500
completely unrelated sites.

A sort of SFW “soft core” example of this would be yoma202.com [1] which is
also used to manage huaweimarine.com. Please note that Huawei and Huawei
Marine separated about 6 months ago technically.

[1] [http://yoma202.com](http://yoma202.com)

~~~
ars
That doesn't actually mean anything. Every large site will have it's UA number
copied by random spammers, often in Russia.

I've never figured out the motivation, but I've seen it a number of times.

~~~
rshnotsecure
I think you make a valid point that also is the most plausible argument I’ve
heard. Except though if I do this exercise for USA sites, I don’t see the same
thing. My guess though is that the USA sites are maybe just more aggressive
about filing abuse claims to the registrar?

~~~
codezero
late to this discussion, but in terms of using Google Analytics, you can
whitelist specific domains if someone is copying your UA code and sending your
instance data. Most implementations are set up this way from the start so you
don't even need to notice someone is attempting to poison your data.

One of the reasons this is done is to generate referrer spam, which is a
really niche way to get the analysts who are looking at the data in GA to see
their ads. I'm sure there are other reasons folks do this, perhaps there's a
UA- code factor into PageRank/Google rankings that spammers picked up on, I
can think of a lot of other creative reasons.

That said, it's pretty curious that there are a lot of sites using it, you
might do well to see if you can intercept some mobile app data to see if any
other apps are also using the UA tag of TikTok.

There are other things you could look at in terms of how they implement the
actual tracking in GA, if the tracking calls look pretty similar but aren't
just a carbon copy, it could be more intentional.

------
Thorentis
Forget the national security concerns (though they could well be valid, would
not be surprised if so) ... what about the potential for child exploitation?
The softporn/borderline actual porn that children are allowed to post of
themselves to be viewed by anybody? It amazes me that very little has been
said about this in the mainstream press. Just do a YouTube search for "hottest
tiktok videos" and convince yourself that child predators aren't using this
platform. Some YouTuber did a big "expose" of this a while back and had his
video deleted (and then reinstated?), typical YouTube drama etc. but it was
quite eye opening. I would never allow my children anywhere near such a
platform.

~~~
viraptor
Is there a reason this gives different impression than "hottest vine videos"?
Was vine curated differently?

~~~
Thorentis
I think a huge part of it is that music videos in general are highly
sexualised. Vine isn't about just music videos, you can post whatever. TikTok
is specifically for music videos, so kids will see popular music videos where
celebs are scantily dressed or whatever, and then emulate it. And then other
kids come along and see what their friends are posting and want to do it too,
and the cycle just continues. Add to that the fact it isn't US based (and so
probably isn't moderated as heavily) and you get what we have now.

edit: confused by the down votes. Not sure what is being disagreed with? Miley
cyrus wearing so little you can see her bum cheeks is what I'd consider
sexualised. Maybe you don't? Do you think it's okay for 12 year olds to be
posting that on TikTok? Am I just a prude?

~~~
mistermann
I saw nothing remarkable at all for your search term.

~~~
Thorentis
Well, it isn't something I search regularly so perhaps not accurate. Or
perhaps YouTube has started removing some videos? I remember seeing a lot of
fuss made about this in the YouTube community about a year ago. At work now
and not really keen to add that search to my history, but might see if
anything has changed later.

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unityByFreedom
> the lawmakers asked the acting director of national intelligence Joseph
> Maguire if the app maker could be compelled to turn Americans’ data over to
> the Chinese authorities.

> Both Schumer and Cotton warn that TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, is
> “still required to adhere” to Chinese law.

I'm surprised if there are many TikTok users in the US.

What is the draw of that app? The description on Wikipedia says is it is for
"markets outside China" but all the content I see upvoted on reddit appears to
be from China. Do they just take the popular videos from China's version (that
the West has never seen) and inject them into TikTok, making TikTok appear to
be popular/high quality?

~~~
kumarm
>>I'm surprised if there are many TikTok users in the US.

Tiktok is

#1 in social category in US on Google Play.

#1 in Entertainment in US on Apple App Store.

Does that surprise you?

~~~
unityByFreedom
I'm not surprised, and I don't think many people look to those rankings as
good proxies for innovative software.

They just show what's popular, not what's hip. Being part of the borg is not
enviable.

------
nightnight
OT: The other day in one of Europe's biggest consumer electronics retail chain
(MediaMarkt):

Why does Huawei has 3x more showroom space than all other smartphones
manufacturers together, right in front of the entrance and this in _every_
MediaMarkt? No other brand has such a setup.

The US is the only country trying to interfere and seeing potential and bigger
threats.

~~~
probably_wrong
> _Why does Huawei has 3x more showroom space than all other smartphones
> manufacturers together, right in front of the entrance and this in every
> MediaMarkt?_

Where have you seen this? I bought a phone at MediaMarkt yesterday in NRW and
I haven't seen anything close to what you describe. I would put them head-to-
head with Samsung, which sounds reasonable for a brand this big. But "3x more
showroom that all other manufacturers together" feels a bit too much.

