To save itself, TikTok in 2022 offered the U.S. government an extraordinary deal. The video app, owned by a Chinese company, said it would let federal officials pick its U.S. operation’s board of directors, would give the government veto power over each new hire and would pay an American company that contracts with the Defense Department to monitor its source code, according to a copy of the company’s proposal. It even offered to give federal officials a kill switch that would shut the app down
  • givesomefucks@lemmy.worldEnglish
    11·
    5 months ago

    It’s not about it being “dangerous” except that it’s a social media company whose interests don’t align with Western governments.

    Like, I’m sure they do shady things with data, but that’s not just them.

    The difference is China has no reason to listen to any other country about what to censor, and is going to censor what they want instead.

    Musk and Zuck do shady shit that harms customers, but at the end of the day Western governments can exert control over them.

    If another country has to ask China to censor something, China is also going to want some stuff censored by that country.