Evan Greer šŸ³ļøā€āš§ļøJan 20, 2023

Many internet freedom advocates have highlighted the irony of states and schools purportedly combatting Chinese censorship by censoring these apps themselves.

ā€œIf it werenā€™t so alarming, it would be hilarious that US policy makers are trying to ā€˜be tough on Chinaā€™ by acting exactly like the Chinese government,ā€ said Evan Greer, deputy director of non-profit advocacy group Fight for the Future. ā€œThis is classic, state-backed Internet censorship.ā€

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/jan/20/us-tiktok-bans-university-campuses

The new frontier in the US war on TikTok: university campuses

Experts say banning the app over college networks will not stop students from accessing it over cellular data

The Guardian
Show threadJohnJan 21, 2023
This false equivalency by @evangreer disparaging privacy advocates is actively harmful. There have been multiple opportunities for Bytedance to provide transparency of how data from western countries is used by the CCP. They have failed to do so. They have failed to provide data protection for users from the CCP. There are clear issues with protecting marginalized portions of society from the CCP, and clear national security issues at play.
Show threadEvan Greer šŸ³ļøā€āš§ļøJan 21, 2023
@just_a_citizen dude what? I am literally a professional privacy advocate. No one is disputing the authoritarianism and violence of the Chinese government. But there are no serious ā€œprivacy advocatesā€ calling for universities to ban Tik Tok from university wifi, because that is not a serious proposal to protect peopleā€™s privacy. Congress should pass a goddamn privacy law that makes it illegal for Tik tok (and meta and YouTube etc) fo collect so much data in the first place
Show threadJohn
@evangreer Congress should totally act to 1. Protect the privacy of US citizens and 2. Hold accountable the corporations who hold onto our data, but fail to protect it from unauthorized release. We can agree on that, I think. I donā€™t agree with calling businesses and universities removing access to a CCP influence and intelligence collection algorithm with censoring free speech. It might be ineffective and promote the Streisand effect, but itā€™s not equal to CCP censorship.
Jan 21, 2023 at 2:10pmWeb
Show threadEvan Greer šŸ³ļøā€āš§ļøJan 21, 2023
@just_a_citizen one of the Chinese governmentā€™s best known policies is outright blocking of ā€œforeignā€ apps and websites like YouTube and Wikipedia
Show threadJohnJan 21, 2023
@evangreer Evan, I applaud your dedication to internet privacy. But stating that blocking Bytedanceā€™s (BD) app and blocking the Wikipedia Foundationā€™s platform are equivalent actions is, frankly, absurd. A garden snake and a cobra might both be snakes, but their characteristics are very different. BD and the Wikipedia Foundation are both digital product providers, but their characteristics are also very different. Google might be closer to BD in privacy concernsā€¦ still not equal.