Even if they didn't have an official backdoor, they would have many backdoors by just placing people on staff (getting them hired in the normal way.) You can't stop state intelligence agencies from getting into any domestic data that they want, even with law (which they can just ignore.) Social media is full of 'ex-'state intelligence operatives, and objections to that situation are made out to be bizarre, or even banned from discussion on these same social networks.
As far as I can tell, what we're supposed to think is that managing a social network, or any communications service, is within the same field as covert intelligence and surveillance, so of course that would be the hiring pool.
Non-Chinese have little to fear from Chinese government monitoring of their activity on TikTok. Chinese people know their government (which openly censors, rather than laundering their censorship through covert means like the Five Eyes), and know how to act to keep safe.
People have plenty to fear from state surveillance regardless of their nationality. The Indian Army had their troop movements monitored by the PLA via TikTok data during a recent conflict, so please don’t pretend that this is merely an abstract fear.
If the Indian Army, in the midst of secret movements, is accessing social networks through their phones, everybody knows where they are and they are incompetent. Please don't pretend the problems of a military force playing on social networks are in any way related to normal people's problems. Ban TikTok from nuclear submarines, too, but I don't know why you would allow any other social network service on there either. I could be running it myself and sending all of your information to the Chinese government.
> Non-Chinese have little to fear from Chinese government monitoring of their activity on TikTok. Chinese people know their government (which openly censors, rather than laundering their censorship through covert means like the Five Eyes), and know how to act to keep safe.
This is so laughable that I don't even know where to start.
How many Chinese individuals got busted for "corruption" because the Chinese Communist Party told people down the line to "do something" and conspicuous social media posters were easy targets? How many Chinese got busted for posting something that happened to contradict the party narrative about Covid?
Even if a Chinese citizen understands how to act right now in the moment (and I don't even concede that), when Dear Leader decides to change the standards you can easily wind up on the wrong side of "proper and correct" with a nice big trail to justify shutting off your social credit.
Surveillance is bad and evil and a threat. Period. It doesn't matter which government is doing it.
As far as I can tell, what we're supposed to think is that managing a social network, or any communications service, is within the same field as covert intelligence and surveillance, so of course that would be the hiring pool.
Non-Chinese have little to fear from Chinese government monitoring of their activity on TikTok. Chinese people know their government (which openly censors, rather than laundering their censorship through covert means like the Five Eyes), and know how to act to keep safe.