Except you have been caught beneath a rock these days, you are in all probability conscious that TikTok is in some sizzling water proper now. The app is at the moment dealing with a nationwide ban within the U.S., and CEO Shou Zi Chew was just lately grilled by lawmakers about TikTok’s practices and the way it handles client app knowledge.
The U.S. fears the Chinese language authorities may gather knowledge from U.S. customers by way of TikTok proprietor ByteDance. Due to this, the app has already been banned on authorities units in each the USA and Canada, with the U.Ok. additionally contemplating a ban. Nevertheless, this current transfer would unfold the ban nationwide, which is probably not in style among the many app’s viewers of greater than 113 million U.S. customers.
That stated, with all of the drama surrounding TikTok and this aggressive push by lawmakers, do you agree that the app must be banned?
TikTok is aware of it is in a really precarious predicament with the USA. That is doubtless why the app just lately refreshed its group tips with extra moderation of AI-generated content material and hate speech. It additionally revealed its group rules for the primary time to be able to give customers a greater understanding of how the app goals to maintain its customers secure.
Nevertheless, lawmakers pressed on with their efforts to ban the app.
Throughout Friday’s testimony, Chew advised lawmakers that Chinese language-based workers at ByteDance have entry to U.S. knowledge (by way of CNBC), not less than for now. TikTok is seemingly within the strategy of deleting knowledge from servers in Singapore and Virginia that may nonetheless be accessed by ByteDance, an effort dubbed “Undertaking Texas” that will see its knowledge being saved within the U.S. by Oracle. He additionally states that the Chinese language authorities has by no means requested for TikTok’s knowledge and that the corporate would refuse such a request.
Nonetheless, that didn’t appear to be sufficient for U.S. lawmakers, who appeared simply as involved as earlier than the listening to.
But, with all of the drama round TikTok and claims that the decision to ban the app is about defending American knowledge, Android Central’s Jerry Hildenbrand writes that it is extra about politics than privateness and that the U.S. has already failed us with regards to defending person knowledge.
“The large drawback right here is that there are a whole lot of different apps which might be simply as dangerous (possibly even worse) with regards to client privateness violations,” he writes. “We all know concerning the few occasions firms took it too far and received caught, as Fb (now Meta) and Twitter had been each caught doing issues their very own privateness insurance policies stated would by no means occur. So why ban TikTok and never Twitter?”
He says the reply comes right down to Individuals being afraid of China, though the USA authorities additionally has workarounds it could possibly use to take no matter knowledge it desires. He believes the most effective factor the U.S. authorities can do is instill harder knowledge privateness protections that U.S. firms should abide by.
“In any case, banning TikTok is only a Band-Help that can piss off lots of people. It is not even an excellent Band-Help and that is coming from somebody who thinks the app is each bit as dangerous because the ‘authorities’ says it’s.”
