Andy Ihnatko

As I said this morning on Boston Public Radio: Bytedance's required subservience to China's national intel laws is a worry, sure…but the simple fact that TikTok is a popular social media app makes the company a potential danger in and of itself.

I wish Apple & Google would respond to this egregious abuse by declaring TikTok to be spyware. I wish they'd pull it from app stores until TikTok convinces independent auditors that this kind of thing can't happen again.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/emilybaker-white/2022/12/22/tiktok-tracks-forbes-journalists-bytedance/

EXCLUSIVE: TikTok Spied On Forbes Journalists

ByteDance confirmed it used TikTok to monitor journalists’ physical location using their IP addresses, as first reported by Forbes in October.

Forbes
Dec 22, 2022 at 10:32pmWeb
Show threadFreakinboxDec 22, 2022

@ihnatko Nobody wants to be unpopular... so they are afraid to do anything about any real crisis.

I think if the Ozone layer hole thing happened today... We would work to accelerate it. So I don't imagine they will do much about TikTok anytime soon.

More importantly, these companies should be held accountable for the advertisements they put on these platforms, that's a bigger concern overall...

Show threadChief TWiT Dec 22, 2022

@ihnatko Yeah I'm afraid I'm going to have to come around on my support for TikTok after this.

I should point out that the same thing is almost certainly happening on Twitter now. And maybe Facebook, too.

Show threadMichael McAllister ♿Dec 22, 2022

@leo @ihnatko Every major social media company does this. Since mass data collection is how they profit, I don't find this news to be all that shocking.

Is this creepy? Yes.
Should companies face repercussions for doing this? Yes.

If people are uncomfortable with their data being collected and tracked, they should consider purchasing a burner/pay-as-you-go phone. Mass surveillance, unfortunately, is part of the world we live in now.

Show threadAndy IhnatkoDec 23, 2022

@ThatMichaelM @leo But there's a BIG difference between the sort of generalized surveillance that monetizes the platform and what happened here.

TikTok can't compel a journalist to name sources who've been promised anonymity. So they tried to determine their identities by examining the journalists' TikTok account data.

This is not exactly outlined in the TOS.

No. This kind of malfeasance demands that TikTok be made to experience what dog trainers describe as A Memorable Corrective Response.

Show threadMichael McAllister ♿Dec 23, 2022

@ihnatko @leo Right. As Leo was saying, this happens already—both in a Big Tech and Big Brother sense.

Anything you send through these services could be tracked by an employee and/or government agency. (Amazon notoriously gives the data it collects over to law enforcement. No warrant required.)

If TikTok is banned, what about the American companies that operate within the Chinese market? They have to comply with Chinese regulations.

Show threadmaddie (MOVED!)   Dec 23, 2022
@ThatMichaelM @leo @ihnatko better yet, do not use tiktok, there's no value in it, it's an app specifically designed to waste as much of your time as possible by getting you addicted.
Show thread🇺🇦 Maksim Lin 💙Dec 22, 2022
@ihnatko saying "its a worry" is you being very polite Andy! The app is a complete pox on society and the fact that all the data is there ready and waiting for any use the CCP wants to put it to is horrifying to say the least.
Show threadrealcaseyrollins ✝️Dec 22, 2022
I mean #Apple and #Google make spyware too
TECI Social

Show threadLeeWoods650Dec 23, 2022
@ihnatko Google would be hesitant because they would be accused of hurting a service that in turn would help their own. Apple would not have that concern in this case.
Show threadLazyBearDec 23, 2022
@ihnatko I’m not so sure I can give up my Tik Yok addiction at this point.
Show threadmaddie (MOVED!)   Dec 23, 2022
@ihnatko people keep telling me "well, every proprietary service has spyware, what's so bad about tiktok in particular?" for one, the information ends up going to china, which will certainly misuse it. there's also a theory that on the international version of tiktok, the algorithm is tuned to promote bad behavior, which is why awful trends keep popping up constantly. the other big problem is tiktok has an incredibly large userbase of people, who collectively sink millions of hours into watching tiktok when they could be doing something else.