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by SpeedilyDamage 1234 days ago
I will need to see specific, concrete evidence from a credible source before I start believing conspiracies and "dark world" theories, because I understand how easy it is to fall into a pit of cynicism, presuming everyone is out to get you or that everything is "rigged" or proactively manipulated by a small, covert group of people.

If you don't have any credible evidence to support the specifics of your claim, you should probably just say so. No shame in speculation, but lots of shame in misidentifying speculation as absolute truth.

As for a credible source that TikTok is a threat, I believe FBI Director Chris Wray when he, "asserted that China could use the app to collect data on its users that could be used for traditional espionage operations."[0]

I also believe Aynne Kokas, professor of media studies and the director of the East Asia Center at the University of Virginia, when she says, "...it's part of a larger Chinese government effort to expand extraterritorial control over digital platforms. So the Chinese government has allowed for and has encouraged Chinese firms to actually engage in national security data audits of any data that's being gathered by a Chinese firm."[1]

Do you have a similarly credible source confirming your claims?

[0] https://apnews.com/article/technology-china-united-states-na...

[1] https://www.npr.org/2022/11/16/1137076864/fbi-says-china-cou...

1 comments

Do you really honestly think the FBI is a neutral source that can be trusted when it comes to US - China relations.

If I showed you a Chinese government official claiming Google is a threat to Chinese security, would you take that seriously.

I believe the FBI and UVA and NPR and AP, and do not believe a hypothetical Chinese report when it comes to protecting US interests and reporting credibly.

If you could produce a statement from a Chinese official about Google however, I would be interested in reading it. I suspect you will not find one that says what you claim.

If you're gonna take the US governments word at face value then there's nothing I can say will convince you otherwise
When it's in alignment with many other credible institutions, even mistrust of the US government is hard to justify without specific evidence of collusion.