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What's going on with TikTok getting banned? (mander.xyz)

submitted 2 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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Not that it personally affects me- I'm not in USA and it's one of the platforms I dislike the most. But I can't find a concise explanation for why.

I've searched for news articles and those I found either don't address the reason behind the ban and talk about US politics, or are vague about it, saying it would collect user sensitive data.

I've also found lists of countries banning TikTok from government devices, okay I understand that, and some countries banning it completely because of cultural sensitivities, which I doubt is US' case.

Fair enough. What kind of user sensitive data would it be collecting? Isn't this what most social media apps do already? What makes TikTok stand out in this regard?

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[–] lurch 19 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

People from within China have access to extensive user data collected by TikTok and use that access to retrieve the data. TikTok basically contains spyware to circumvent system restrictions, so the collected data is very sensitive.

The US laws do not allow this data to leave the country.

TikTok does not restrict this foreign access for unknown reasons. (Suspected state actors involved.)

So it will probably be banned to stop the spying.

https://apnews.com/article/tiktok-ftc-investigation-china-data-e91e02db5c4f3f7d5836ecafedbf4714

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Its illegal, but it most certainly does allow it. US companies also collect this data, and not all of their servers are US based.

[–] lurch 1 points 2 months ago

In that case they are probably next to get prosecuted.