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GORDON CHANG: China Smiles As America Falls Deeper Into The TikTok Trap
Daily Caller ^ | January 8, 2023 | Gordon Chang

Posted on 01/08/2023 4:11:08 PM PST by E. Pluribus Unum

TikTok, the extremely popular video-sharing app, is in the midst of another round of negotiations with the U.S. federal government over data security.

The Biden administration should terminate the seemingly endless discussions and either require TikTok to stop operations in the U.S. or force its Chinese owner to sell the app lock, stock and barrel to American parties. No other solution is acceptable from national security and First Amendment points of view.

President Joe Biden’s failure to counter the known threat of the TikTok platform is a prime example of Washington’s bipartisan inability to recognize the comprehensive nature of the Communist Party’s assault on America. China wants to tap TikTok data for, among other purposes, blackmailing and intimidating Americans.

TikTok and its owner ByteDance have repeatedly made promises about the security of personal data of Americans, but they have violated all pledges. “TikTok’s assurances of increased transparency and data security are a strategic ploy to placate American regulators,” said Chuck Flint, a former U.S. Senate chief of staff and now TikTok expert, to Gatestone.

The most recent revelation involves the tracking of locations of U.S. users. On Dec. 22, 2022, ByteDance announced it had fired four workers who had, according to the company, improperly accessed location data on two journalists and other users in the United States. The fired employees were attempting to find who had leaked internal company documents to BuzzFeed and the Financial Times.

BuzzFeed reported on June 17, 2022 that audio recordings of more than 80 internal TikTok meetings showed that ByteDance employees had accessed nonpublic U.S. user data from September 2021 to the following January. “Everything is seen in China,” a member of TikTok’s Trust and Safety Department said in September of last year. A “Beijing-based engineer” known as “Master Admin” had “access to everything.”

(Excerpt) Read more at dailycallernewsfoundation.org ...


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Foreign Affairs; Government
KEYWORDS: china; gordonchang; tiktok
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1 posted on 01/08/2023 4:11:08 PM PST by E. Pluribus Unum
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

kids minds are completely consumed by this mess.


2 posted on 01/08/2023 4:13:14 PM PST by devane617 (Discipline Is Reliable, Motivation Is Fleeting..)
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

*


3 posted on 01/08/2023 4:13:20 PM PST by E. Pluribus Unum ( “The fascists of the future will call themselves anti-fascists.” -- Winston Churchill)
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

Biden’s negotiations will be “2% more to the Big Guy” .


4 posted on 01/08/2023 4:14:03 PM PST by HYPOCRACY (This is the dystopian future we've been waiting for!)
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

*


5 posted on 01/08/2023 4:14:47 PM PST by E. Pluribus Unum (The worst thing about censorship is ████ █ ██████ ███████ ███ ██████ ██ ████████. FJB.)
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

The Chinese communist tool of subversion, TikTok, must be banned!!!!

Sorry, Gen Z! But the ban would be for your good, too!!!!


6 posted on 01/08/2023 4:14:52 PM PST by Honorary Serb (Kosovo is Serbia! Free Srpska! Abolish ICTY!)
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

Does TikTok involve the collection of data that other apps don’t touch? How is it different?


7 posted on 01/08/2023 4:15:06 PM PST by cdcdawg (Hoes mad! LOL! )
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

Great—we can have the Chinese government steal data on US citizens and lie about it or we can have the US government steal data on US citizens and lie about it.

This is a really big deal—not!


8 posted on 01/08/2023 4:15:13 PM PST by cgbg (Claiming that laws and regs that limit “hate speech” stop freedom of speech is “hate speech”.)
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

TikTok + fentanyl.

Quite a one-two punch from the ChiComs.

But I don’t blame the Biden administration for their pathetic response here. When you are dealing with serious problems like what pronouns to use when talking to transsexuals, you really don’t have much time for anything else.


9 posted on 01/08/2023 4:22:45 PM PST by Leaning Right (The steal is real.)
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

Let’s just stop right here, “President Joe Biden’s failure”

Joey Biden IS A FAILURE, ALWAYS HAS BEEN AND ALWAYS WILL BE.

FJB and every last pervert, in his administration.


10 posted on 01/08/2023 4:25:16 PM PST by OHPatriot (Si vis pacem, para bellum)
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

I don’t expect privacy from a Chinese company.


11 posted on 01/08/2023 4:25:20 PM PST by Brian Griffin
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

Almost every cyber technique or capability we complain about, we developed and employed long before those we are complaining about.

At the time of Snowden’s revelations, there were roughly 170 various platforms/systems our IC used to snoop and data collect, i.e. spy on in part American citizens and then lie about doing such as Clapper did.

We are the leader in this crap. The NSA CREATED Google essentially by funding them early on and allowing them to clobber their competition like AltaVista etc.

Almost every email provider, ISP, network hardware manufacturer, operating system, anti-virus, telecom, search engine, social media platform is in on the game in some way.

Stop complaining.


12 posted on 01/08/2023 4:25:57 PM PST by Red6
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

Even if Americans bought it, Chinese spyware would still be embedded.

The EU could force American companies to sell their European operations on the same basis.


13 posted on 01/08/2023 4:28:21 PM PST by Brian Griffin
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

If Biden were to ban TikTok it would be no more beneficial than his “Safe Schools Act” gun bans aka sitting duck zones.


14 posted on 01/08/2023 4:30:57 PM PST by lightman (I am a binary Trinitarian. Deal with it!)
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To: Honorary Serb

Don’t we have some expert level hackers that could take out tic-toc?


15 posted on 01/08/2023 4:31:41 PM PST by matthew fuller (Democrats aren't about Socialism, or Communism. They are all about Ghettoism!)
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

” either require TikTok to stop operations in the U.S. or force its Chinese owner to sell the app lock, stock and barrel to American parties. No other solution is acceptable from national security and First Amendment points of view.”

Yeah, make them sell it to an American company. That’ll keep us safe.

Something isn’t right about this sudden worry about Tic-tok. I wonder if it’s a distraction from FBI/DHS/CIA spying on Americans via Facebook, Google, Twitter?


16 posted on 01/08/2023 4:33:23 PM PST by DesertRhino (Dogs are called man's best friend. Moslems hate dogs. Add it up..)
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To: Red6

Agreed—spyware is everywhere and always around the world now.

I lol at the PBS series whining about Pegasus.

They are upset because it was used to spy on journalists.

If they read Snowden at all they would have known that horse left the barn more than a decade ago....Pegasus is just the one they know about...

If folks want privacy they are gonna have to live deep in the woods out of the range of cell towers—and never venture into civilization!

It is what it is.


17 posted on 01/08/2023 4:36:06 PM PST by cgbg (Claiming that laws and regs that limit “hate speech” stop freedom of speech is “hate speech”.)
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To: cdcdawg

It sends ALL your keystrokes to china.

Even when you bank.


18 posted on 01/08/2023 4:37:49 PM PST by Uncle Miltie ("The News” is a fake narrative promulgated by the Deep State Uniparty to control you and enrich them)
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

It’s not the spying that’s the problem.

It’s the billions of hours spent on mind-numbing drivel.


19 posted on 01/08/2023 4:40:37 PM PST by FarCenter
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To: Uncle Miltie

Is that something that other apps do? It sounds like YouTube is the most similar platform. Does it collect this key stroke data? Do other social media apps? Is it unique in this?


20 posted on 01/08/2023 4:42:15 PM PST by cdcdawg (Hoes mad! LOL! )
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