I think if we're going to ban it over concerns about another country spying on our citizens we should ban Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, WhatsApp, Snapchat, Microsoft Windows, Google and Apple. Why is US spyware okay but Chinese spyware not?
this post was submitted on 17 Mar 2024
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Politically, we are aligned with the US. US (supposedly) stands for democracy, freedom, rule of law. Against, pretty big supposedly especially on the last one lately!
China stand for Communism, authoritarianism and basically the opposite of anything the statue of liberty stands for. They are politically the "enemy" for want of a better term. And with that they are doing to the uighur population prove WHY we dont want to be in bed with them, let alone give them access to our kids algorithms.
Let me clear: I HATE Facebook. I dont use it, and I think it should be *HEAVILY * age gated. BUT its comparing apples with oranges. Importantly too: lets not get caught in the "Well X sucks what about Y" cycle either. Tiktok is the clear and present danger. other threats can and do exist outside of it, but thats not the conversation right now.
Don't get me wrong I hate these apps and would like them gone. Ally or not I don't think it is acceptable for any country (including our own) to spy on people.
But economically, we are more aligned with China, so it’s not really a valid argument. Spying on citizenry is anti democratic, more authoritarian, so to say we align with their values and allow things from them that go against those values is ridiculous.
Rather than banning these apps, we should regulate the use of data better. Both on an individual and aggregate level.