The TikTok ban and RedNote’s rise expose a grim truth: the dream of a borderless Internet is unraveling as the US and China wage a battle for digital control
Meanwhile, American users are flocking to RedNote because authorities have worked themselves into a lather over privacy concerns about TikTok, while U.S. tech giants harvest user data with industrial efficiency. The difference? American data collection is done for profit, and Chinese data collection is done for control. Pick your poison.
Hard to argue Zuck and Elon don’t want control either…
Isn’t it the exact opposite? The only thing China can do with my data is try to sell me stuff. Meanwhile, the authorities in my own country have the power to kick in my door and drag me away to some blacksite.
If I were Chinese, I would rather the US government have my data than the Chinese government, but since I’m American, I would rather the Chinese government have it than the US. Pretty much everyone anywhere in the world ought to regard their own government as their highest security risk.
Reality: every U.S. leftist content creator has been physically visited by FBI agents and have a file maintained on them, despite never once making a threat or call to violence.
Meanwhile, China has lifted hundreds of millions out of crushing poverty and built the world’s best high speed rail system, only in the last 10-15 years.
And they make fun of Xi and criticize their government just fine.
Every accusation liberals make is a confession. Really weird how they keep acting indistinguishable from literal Nazis while accusing the left of doing the same thing.
Oh look, there it is again. Libs just can’t stop taking Ls.
And yet China is basically the same as the USA will be in a few years. A hypercapitalist country (under the disguise of communism) that caters to the already rich, with incredibly authotarian methods that funds its wealth largely by overexpenditure of the state.
Sure many Chinese have profited, but many have been deliberately thrown under the bus, even more so now with record-high youth unemployment and homelessness. Sure they’ve build a lot of good infrastructure, though it’s debatable whether the quality is any good, but that was done to fund companies and fill the pockets of corrupt politicians and their buddies.
China should not be an example of a good social state to anyone.
The difference? American data collection is done for profit, and Chinese data collection is done for control. Pick your poison.
No the difference is that these US companies give the US government a backdoor into everyone’s data (while also harvesting it all for profit) while the Chinese apps don’t in favor of giving the Chinese government a backdoor into everyone’s data. They don’t give a shit about propaganda and brainwashing occurring which is why they’ll allow the app to stay up in the US just so long as it’s an American company controlling it here because then they can install their backdoor for the US government.
Yeah, this may have been true before the upcoming administration, but Trump’s government (which will be a full-blown oligarchy) absolutely wants Chinese/Russian style control over its citizens.
How do people not think that China is also a hyper capitalistic society, especially in the tech sector. Your data is 100% being sold if you are on any Chinese platform, just like in the U.S.
If anything, Chinese big tech tends to be less privacy-respecting than the west, because they don’t need to operate in area with basic privacy laws, like Europe and California; and there are much less alternative products to choose from because of the GFW.
“In this country, you gotta make the money first. Then when you get the money, you get the power. Then when you get the power, then you get the women.”
Then, when all your desires are fullfilled, you realize that your life is empty because nobody around you actually gives a shit about you and are only using you as a connection to money and/or power. You end up a soulless husk of a human being whose only goal in life is line go up.
Honestly, if they all stopped trying to get more money or power at the point where they have all the women and luxuries they could ever want it would be a vast improvement over the status quo at this point.
destruction may be the result of failure to control or even resistance to control. Why all these generalizations? There are so many variables in uncountably different situations.
This is crystal clear now, but it was less clear before.
I started saying that social media finally figured out how to monetize the platform and it’s customers aren’t people, aren’t even companies, the customers are now billionaires and foreign governments.
Hard to argue Zuck and Elon don’t want control either…
Isn’t it the exact opposite? The only thing China can do with my data is try to sell me stuff. Meanwhile, the authorities in my own country have the power to kick in my door and drag me away to some blacksite.
If I were Chinese, I would rather the US government have my data than the Chinese government, but since I’m American, I would rather the Chinese government have it than the US. Pretty much everyone anywhere in the world ought to regard their own government as their highest security risk.
Liberals: MUH SENSORSHIP NOOOOO
Reality: every U.S. leftist content creator has been physically visited by FBI agents and have a file maintained on them, despite never once making a threat or call to violence.
Meanwhile, China has lifted hundreds of millions out of crushing poverty and built the world’s best high speed rail system, only in the last 10-15 years.
And they make fun of Xi and criticize their government just fine.
Every accusation liberals make is a confession. Really weird how they keep acting indistinguishable from literal Nazis while accusing the left of doing the same thing.
Oh look, there it is again. Libs just can’t stop taking Ls.
And yet China is basically the same as the USA will be in a few years. A hypercapitalist country (under the disguise of communism) that caters to the already rich, with incredibly authotarian methods that funds its wealth largely by overexpenditure of the state.
Sure many Chinese have profited, but many have been deliberately thrown under the bus, even more so now with record-high youth unemployment and homelessness. Sure they’ve build a lot of good infrastructure, though it’s debatable whether the quality is any good, but that was done to fund companies and fill the pockets of corrupt politicians and their buddies.
China should not be an example of a good social state to anyone.
No the difference is that these US companies give the US government a backdoor into everyone’s data (while also harvesting it all for profit) while the Chinese apps don’t in favor of giving the Chinese government a backdoor into everyone’s data. They don’t give a shit about propaganda and brainwashing occurring which is why they’ll allow the app to stay up in the US just so long as it’s an American company controlling it here because then they can install their backdoor for the US government.
Yeah, this may have been true before the upcoming administration, but Trump’s government (which will be a full-blown oligarchy) absolutely wants Chinese/Russian style control over its citizens.
How do people not think that China is also a hyper capitalistic society, especially in the tech sector. Your data is 100% being sold if you are on any Chinese platform, just like in the U.S.
If anything, Chinese big tech tends to be less privacy-respecting than the west, because they don’t need to operate in area with basic privacy laws, like Europe and California; and there are much less alternative products to choose from because of the GFW.
The founder and CEO of Baidu openly stated that “Chinese people are less sensitive about privacy, which gives us more data to work with” See https://m.163.com/dy/article/DDRTB01Q0511FQO9.html?spss=adap_pc
They all operate under the same laws in any given area. And neither respect your privacy if not forced by laws that are actually enforced.
You are right, but I imagine it is harder to sue a company over GDPR if they don’t even exists in Europe…
I’d argue profit and control are two sides of the same coin
“In this country, you gotta make the money first. Then when you get the money, you get the power. Then when you get the power, then you get the women.”
Then, when all your desires are fullfilled, you realize that your life is empty because nobody around you actually gives a shit about you and are only using you as a connection to money and/or power. You end up a soulless husk of a human being whose only goal in life is line go up.
Honestly, if they all stopped trying to get more money or power at the point where they have all the women and luxuries they could ever want it would be a vast improvement over the status quo at this point.
not necessarily
Please elaborate
the power to destroy a thing is complete control over it
Lisan al gaib? Muad’dib!
not necessarily, again
destruction may be the result of failure to control or even resistance to control. Why all these generalizations? There are so many variables in uncountably different situations.
some profit from things getting out of control
some give up on profit to have control (you may say that control is their profit, but i’m taking profit literally.
profit is simply a means of seeking control…
The article talks about how America is mirroring China’s tactic. So yeah, now they want control too.
This is crystal clear now, but it was less clear before.
I started saying that social media finally figured out how to monetize the platform and it’s customers aren’t people, aren’t even companies, the customers are now billionaires and foreign governments.
The influence of foreign governments is negligible next to what the US exerts on us. Americans have the jester’s privilege, we can say whatever we want, as long as they know it doesn’t matter. As soon as the government feels like it matters, they have a million tools to silence you.