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U.K. and U.S. banning TikTok from Govt Phones, but They Should Just Ban It Entirely
- Thread starter Marc_LFD
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Censorship on the land of the freedom?
The State choosing your phone apps is not something that only the evil communists do?
The State choosing your phone apps is not something that only the evil communists do?
That really isn't much different from other social media platforms. As such, the only real way to stop espionage is to ban smartphones outright. And unlike this wannabe patch, it's actually enforceable for governments. Not cheap, but it's at least not a wasted effort.
Blocking an app outside won't happen. You can't enforce your view on the rest of the world. Sovereignty and such.
Just like any other app and social media platform these days, Tik Tok harvests your data and sends it to their mother company for data mining or other nefarious purposes. The difference being, Tik Tok sends it to the Chinese government directly, while other apps do it via a middle man. Either way your phone makes your data available to the highest bidder.
Any official government or company or any work-related phone should be locked down and with any installation disabled. Not just Tik Tok, anything not work-related. "Smartphones" and the million apps they run are a huge gaping security hole and government employees absolutely should not use them on the same phone they use for work.
Any official government or company or any work-related phone should be locked down and with any installation disabled. Not just Tik Tok, anything not work-related. "Smartphones" and the million apps they run are a huge gaping security hole and government employees absolutely should not use them on the same phone they use for work.
As much as I despise some of the cretins and weirdo's that frequent that app, I need to agree with you - free people can choose what they want to listen to and watch, it's not up to the government to ban free speech. Only tinpot dictatorships go down that line and sooner of later they get overthrown when people have had enough. Just look at any history book for verification and look at world maps that have consistently changed since time began. The French nobility were twats, they ended up getting their heads chopped off. Then look at your many dictators that have died by suicide or at the end of a rope.
Governments are paid and elected to represent the people - not to curtail their freedom or impinge on their lifestyle choices, whether that is listening to music, reading books or watching tiktok. The left want to ban everything that doesn't fit their narative - it seems they are tryng to erase straight white men and women for now, it will be free speech and free thought next if you would let them get away with it. Look at that commie twat that's currently running Canada and his antics, and that French twat Macron that just bypassed parliment to raise the retirement age - which the French people don't want. If you give them an inch they will take a mile.
Last edited by mrdude,
Ban the shitty app, it's a cancer to society, and dumbing us down as a whole. This entire "Look at me being a dumb twat for attention and views/likes/subs!" generation needs to fucking END.
Is it a generation or human nature? Just a nature that technology has now allowed the masses to enjoy as opposed to select few pretty people and those born with some connections?
this mainly the 2nd point
everyone here ranting about muh freedoms of speech
meanwhile no one thinking of the fact these are government specific work phones and you want that kind of data protected
If they do ban it, how exactly would they do it? Tell Google and Apple to remove it from their store, and go around purging the APK from websites like crazy? Good luck purging the APK.
As for gov worker phones, I'd be completely okay with forcing gov workers to use dumb phones. lol
This is coming from someone who doesn't give a shit about TikTok.
As for gov worker phones, I'd be completely okay with forcing gov workers to use dumb phones. lol
This is coming from someone who doesn't give a shit about TikTok.
I imagine they would lean on Apple and Google (carrot or stick remains to be seen) as a start*, and after that probably whatever they use to knock out piracy websites and kiddy fiddler sites (well established in the UK, less so in the US). If getting really radical then probably also get some ISPs and backbones to do deep packet inspection like it is torrents or netflix and have things dropped/radically slowed by the firewall. If they make the money collection/distribution arm of tiktok also illegal/untenable to operate in the US (no money in, can still pay your remaining taxes though and of course leave that money deposited in a nice struggling US bank) that would also dry things up in a hurry (slight lack of censorship and possibility to get a low volume of cash being the better one there). Being social meeja it depends entirely upon traffic to survive and thus would wither either way.
Legal mechanisms for much of that in the US are thin and would probably require some creative lawyering to get around free speech and free enterprise rules, the UK went censor happy do as I say years ago. National security probably being the order of the day, but I could see a child safeguarding effort be the one (national security is not really a US democrat vote winner), maybe a one-two combo if the first gambit fails.
*I would be genuinely curious to see if Apple or Google took a principled stance here similar to giz backdoor to device requests from law enforcement but hey. I would bet on not even a token objection and instead whether it was a lawsuit threat or contract offer that got them to play along then a "we take privacy very seriously" statement as irony alert systems around the place catch fire (or possibly explode if the US gov says it takes privacy seriously).
Govt phones okay. Next step. Anyone who's friends with the Govt gets watched instead. Not like they are losing connections with their friends with the money and you would never know who gets to watch someone else's phone. With freedom of speech and saying your mind, everyone will know who you are on TikTok. Then that goes with treason so we know who isn't going to side with Russia when there's a war.
I've literally watched society get dumber as a collective whole since smartphones ironically became a thing. The phones got smarter, and people got dumber.
the last paragraph scares me a little they keep trying despite us having a thing called the fourth amendment that should prevent it i mean if a tech savy criminal wanted to they could find a glitch in the "backdoor" and remove it despite DMCA claims this also goes for fact how the GOP would crush any rebelion if they go full blown banana republic in 2024
I saw this thread on the sidebar and thought I'd give my two cents.
I do agree that people should be allowed to do whatever they want with their phones, and that an app should not be banned purely for its content. I do however think that things can change when said app could be a potential threat. TikTok is owned by a Chinese company, and could potentially be giving user data to their government. It could very well be a security risk. I'm not by any means an expert on the subject, but I do understand wanting to get rid of an app that could potentially be providing information to another government.
I do agree that people should be allowed to do whatever they want with their phones, and that an app should not be banned purely for its content. I do however think that things can change when said app could be a potential threat. TikTok is owned by a Chinese company, and could potentially be giving user data to their government. It could very well be a security risk. I'm not by any means an expert on the subject, but I do understand wanting to get rid of an app that could potentially be providing information to another government.
I want the internet to go back to being used for education and reliable information. Let social media exist on their exclusive apps, but keep them off websites.
Did that ever happen? Remember reading even early arpanet was full of nerds discussing star trek much to the chagrin of people paying by the byte/ctrl S on this web page (text and a few images) being multiple times the whole thing. Usenet and bbs were never bastions of such things either.
That is also before we discuss whether education is collaborative.
First im not a tiktok user. but banning tiktok is like the biggest hypocrite move in history. Meta (facebook and instagram) and twitter are way worse of misusing our data and privacy. this is known fact. forget Google and Microsoft who are the Gods of this.
Politicians are brought and sold by mega big companies. looks like Politicians are trying to please they masters.
Politicians are brought and sold by mega big companies. looks like Politicians are trying to please they masters.
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