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A comment on U.S. looking at banning Chinese social media apps, including TikTok.

Re:U.S. looking at banning Chinese social media apps, includ... by sschueller on Tuesday July 07, 2020 @02:26AM (#23756305)
So it is not ok for a foreign app the spy on its user but it's perfectly ok for Google and co to do so? Anyone remember what Uber did with their app and tracking users? What about the king of tracking, facebook?
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Re:U.S. looking at banning Chinese social media apps, includ... by lightgreen on Tuesday July 07, 2020 @02:39AM (#23756371)
There’s a quite a large difference between Google spying and China spying. When Google “spies”, users get more relevant ads. When China spies, people get into “Vocational Education and Training Centers” and other bad things happen.

Chinese spying is like 10000 times worse in practice.

But in theory, when dealing in absolutes, there is no difference, both are spies.

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Re:U.S. looking at banning Chinese social media apps, includ... by apexalpha on Tuesday July 07, 2020 @03:43AM (#23756675)
Let's be honest: Google has been known to be in bed with the NSA and other agencies as well. It's very disingenuous to pretend Google only serves you ads but has no relations to the US national intelligence community but Chinese apps do.
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Re:U.S. looking at banning Chinese social media apps, includ... by chaos_a on Tuesday July 07, 2020 @04:23AM (#23756904)
the difference is that the US is using spying to stop people from doing illegal things. China is using spying to silence/monitor anyone who disagrees with it's government.

Yes, both countries are definitely spying on people via social media apps. But what they're using it for is different.

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Re:U.S. looking at banning Chinese social media apps, includ... by apexalpha on Tuesday July 07, 2020 @06:09AM (#23757511)
Both governments use spying to stop people from doing things they made illegal in their countries.

I'm not here to argue the Chinese government is better than the US one. It's absolutely and unquestionably worse.

But from a perspective in Europe they're both foreign governments that I have no say in and that are not here for my best interest.

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Re:U.S. looking at banning Chinese social media apps, includ... by rydre on Tuesday July 07, 2020 @06:46AM (#23757752)
If you really have European interests at heart, you would be banning both American and Chinese apps to give room for your incumbents to rise.
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Re:U.S. looking at banning Chinese social media apps, includ... by apexalpha on Tuesday July 07, 2020 @07:14AM (#23757957)
I've made that argument a few hours ago: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23755863
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Re:U.S. looking at banning Chinese social media apps, includ... by hellomyguys on Tuesday July 07, 2020 @11:39AM (#23760341)
>the difference is that the US is using spying to stop people from doing illegal things.

I don't think this is entirely accurate...

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Re:U.S. looking at banning Chinese social media apps, includ... by lightgreen on Tuesday July 07, 2020 @03:53AM (#23756728)
If you have some references to confirm your theory about Google and NSA, please share a link.

Otherwise it is just ZOG theory.

Also, the statement about “being in bed” is very vague and non informative.

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Re:U.S. looking at banning Chinese social media apps, includ... by myopenid2 on Tuesday July 07, 2020 @04:23AM (#23756907)
Feigning ignorance doesn't make facts disappear.
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Re:U.S. looking at banning Chinese social media apps, includ... by lightgreen on Tuesday July 07, 2020 @04:45AM (#23757029)
This would be much more productive conversation if someone explained what they mean by Google being in bed with NSA and shared a link.
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Re:U.S. looking at banning Chinese social media apps, includ... by stunt on Tuesday July 07, 2020 @04:16AM (#23756868)
> When Google “spies”, users get more relevant ads.

Not always about ads. Remember Cambridge Analytica data scandal.

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Re:U.S. looking at banning Chinese social media apps, includ... by john4534243 on Tuesday July 07, 2020 @10:08AM (#23759422)
US is not great, but i would want the US to be the police of the world and not china. I am not a US citizen. The reason is simple USA is built on democracy and individual freedom.
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