I want to see what TikTok is about but also want to retain some privacy. If its on F-droid, playstore or as a APK I don’t mind.

  • @TheAnonymouseJoker@lemmy.ml
    1•2 years ago

    I do not think you understand how TikTok is treated compared to Facebook and the likes amongst biased Westerners. Hell even in India here, it is banned for no reason other than political posturing. For some reason, TikTok activates Sinophobia, but discussion about Facebook, Instagram or Snapchat (which collect incomparably more data and latter 2 unusable from browser) is good manners.

    From a very, very old comment I made once on reddit:

    The sentiment of a lot of Westerners across reddit is like this, and I strictly feel that this is very unfair, because Western companies do not get the same treatment and bashing. Primarily because 70% of reddit is used by US, Canada, UK and West Europe. I also observe Sinophobic comments in general, plenty of which I have avoided on this very post of mine to not ruin my credibility as someone who is helping a lot of people, giving a lot of people hope for attaining privacy.

    I am from India, so being accused of being a pro-China Chinese citizen does not work. It is all rational thinking. I have been trapped myself in the heat of discussions plenty times, but that has helped me mature thankfully.

    Why do I think sentiment is Sinophobic? Because political and partisan arguments start to be used instantly on any post that even mentions any Chinese technology company in good or bad light or even no light, and then it becomes whataboutism, and then inception of whataboutism, strawman arguments, logical fallacies, bashing, flaming, trolling, baiting… you know the drill. And that becomes a mess, most of what reddit sadly is.

    We need to learn to be rational and not have nationalistic prejudices when talking about technology, because when one cites Chinese surveillance law, they also need to cite US Cloud Act and Patriot Act that do the exact same thing for ages. Most countries are doing the same thing, and we need to objectively analyse every piece of technology when sensitive topic like privacy (virtual or real) is discussed, instead of baiting and citing wrong sources to prove oneself right.

    • ᗪᗩᗰᑎ
      1•2 years ago

      I think the difference is that ultimately China (the government, not it’s people) is an enemy of the “wester alliance” - “the west”, if you will. You can work, and even cooperate, with an enemy to a degree, but you don’t let them into your house. It’s pretty basic at it’s core. TikTok is from a simplistic POV, is at the whims of the Chinese government - much like Facebook/Insta/Snap are to the US government although to a much lesser extent. We don’t worry about FB/Insta/Snap because they operate within the “western” jurisdiction and are “trusted” within their domain.

      Being rational also requires you take real-life risks into consideration. This would be like saying “why don’t you treat your friends the same way you treat the local crackhead when he walks through your store? He’s just there to buy essentials” - yes, he may be there to actually buy things, but he’s much more likely to do something nefarious than your known friends.