I’m not here to claim that Tiktok is completely harmless, or that it’s even a good site. I’m sure they absolutely do collect as much personal information as they can, and I’m sure they give it to the Chinese government whenever they ask. But I don’t understand how Meta and Facebook are meant to be any better? There’s always a lot of hoo-haa going on with politicians promising to ban tiktok, and (at least back on Reddit) everybody’s vowing they will never use tiktok because it’s such a privacy invasive site. Yet I never see anybody going up against Facebook, at least the average person, but they collect just as much personal info and I’m sure hand it over whenever any government agency in the US asks them to

It kind of feels to me like this is some sort of country thing. China is bad, so they shouldn’t have your personal info. But the US is the last bastion of free speech and privacy, so their companies would NEVER dare to invade your privacy, and their government would never abuse their power to get people’s personal info

I’m aware Lemmy probably isn’t the best place to ask since most people here seem to be deep into open source software and often privacy focused (so I suppose wouldn’t use either) but this also feels like the only place on the internet I might actually get an answer that isn’t just “TIKTOK BAD”. If you refuse to use tiktok but are ok with Facebook - why?

  • slumlordthanatos@lemmy.world
    293·
    9 months ago

    People in the know understand how shitty Facebook is, but at the very least, they’re a private company. ByteDance is Chinese, and there’s very little separation between Chinese companies and the Chinese government.

    So, for all intents and purposes, it comes down to a company spying on you vs. a foreign government spying on you. They’re both invading your privacy, but for different nefarious reasons.

    • s38b35M5@lemmy.worldEnglish
      121·
      9 months ago

      Facebook is open about the fact that it hands private user data over to the US Gov’t if they simply ask. Third party doctrine.

      • wahming@monyet.ccEnglish
        37·
        9 months ago

        Yes but at least in theory, there’s a lot less the US govt can do with that info

          • shastaxc@lemm.ee
            53·
            8 months ago

            The theory that the US president can’t order the arrest of someone who posted something on the Internet saying he looks like Winnie the Pooh, and expect no consequences.

              • wahming@monyet.ccEnglish
                32·
                8 months ago

                No, I think if I was a local in China and said something like that, I would.

              • shastaxc@lemm.ee
                11·
                8 months ago

                No, you’re terrible at interpreting analogies. I’m saying we in the US do not have to be afraid of being arrested for criticising our government or its officials. You do have to worry about that happening in China.

                You can literally find multiple articles on this exact thing happening. The CCP has every opportunity to refute these claims if they really were fabricated, but they don’t because they want their populace to be afraid to criticize the government.

                That is why using Facebook in the US is not seen as bad even though Facebook is a US-based company, you don’t have to worry about the US government coming after you because you say that Biden looks like a raisin.