The TikTok Ban from a IT-security and from a political point of view
A lot has been said on the TikTok ban already but most commenters miss some important aspects, especially concerning the actual IT-security side. From the political side, it is clear that this is obvious that this not a move that is motivated by protecting the data of American citizens but is motivated by economic interests of the competing social-media platforms like X and Meta and even more by the fact that the US is now afraid that it can no longer manipulate its population in the same way that they where used to. Let us look at the details:
The IT-Security aspect. What no one is talking about: The Snowden Case
Can an App be a "national security threat"? Actually yes: When half of your population has installed that app that application can be used to collect a lot of data on these citizens and the app could theoretically use it to connect behind firewalls. So if you have a e.g home-router then the computers behind that router are not directly accessible via the internet, but if you have an app that is running behind that router and which connects to the outside world this can be used as a tunnel to reach all these devices. The same is true for a lot of corporate firewalls. So yes: That app gives you a lot of power.
When it comes to data protection this, of course is completely hypocritical: the US corporations (mainly for marketing purposes) already spy on their citizens. Anyone can buy this information. And US and other spy agencies are already doing this. So there would be not much incentive to add additional spying when you can buy all that information for cheap on the "free market".
So if you have your own private network behind your home-router: It is advisable to make sure all devices there are actually protected. That is: keep the software up to date and use good passwords, etc. Treat it the same way as a device that you would have directly exposed to the internet.
If you run an app on Googles Android or Apples IPhone than that app is somewhat restricted by what it can do. The Iphone or Android OS only gives it limited permissions. Yet it needs some permissions to function and what is more important: Ever so often there are security vulnerabilities found in Android and IPhone. Any app on that devices can then use this security vulnerabilities to hack into the device and gain potentially full access. So if you have an app that is installed on many devices, some of them even old and without any security updates at all then you can get even more power. With control of the mobile operating system you can basically do anything, including spying via audio and video.
Now of course here is the part that where it becomes hypocritical: If you are the manufacturer of the device (you built the hardware) and even more if you are the vendor that produced the mobile OS (that is Google or Apple) then you already have that full access.
Now at least since the revelations of Edward Snowden we know how aggressively the US is spying on its own citizens and even more on the rest of the world. Where there would be some theoretical limitations on how much they can spy on their own citizens there is absolutely no protection for anyone outside the US. Up until recently we in Europe could at least pretend that hopefully the US agencies would not abuse this power to much. But now that the USA is sliding into an openly fascist dictatorship this is an huge problem! Fascists all over the world supported by the spy agencies in the US will can easily completely destabilize the world!
So from a political point of view: If China also gets some access to the data the US already has then that at least levels the plying field and balances the force a bit against the fascist US regimes that will come with Trump.
Now the best thing would be to protect against this kind of threats: We should use free/open source software on our devices. As for the desktop: Using Linux is really easy this days. On the Phone it is a bit more complicated but there are also offerings there. (E.g. List of Open Source Mobile Phones Fairphone and Open Source
If your government now tries to bring the discussion on a TikTok ban: Go and ask them what they do to support free/open source mobile operating systems.
It is really strange that in this whole TikTok-Ban discussions no one brings up the the Snowden revelations. This should especially be relevant for anyone outside the US!
The Political Aspect
As it has been stated above: Certainly the reason for the TikTok ban is not the protection of your data. While there is a significant security aspect your data can be bought for cheap anyways. So the reason on why they wanted that TikTok ban is the control over the Propaganda that is feed to you. This has a commercial aspect. Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg would try to make a buck from this. TikTok has 170 million users in the US! TikTok is bigger then Facebook or Instagram.
As it is easy to influence the US companies (In the end all you need is money) the situation was a bit more complicated with TikTok. The Elites in the US where afraid that this might not be bought as easily and this is what was the main motivation why they where for the ban. Did China influence the TikTok algorithm? We do not know but as we can see: They do not have to: If people are free to exchange their information than the truth (which has a well known liberal bias will already work in against the right wing.
It was absolutely hilarious to see how so many Americans where now flocking to an actual Chinese app called "Red Note" and now learned that all the lies that the government has fed them about China is not true and that Chinese people have a much higher standard of living.
With all the Americans are already aware of how fucked up their country is: Medical dept and student loan dept. All the sympathy that people have for Luigi Mangione shows how much awareness there already is for the situation.
What do do?
As stated above already: We need free and open alternatives to our IT infrastructure. On the one side we would need open source alternatives to Android and IPhone and we need free and open social media alternatives. In the wake of the TikTok ban people are already thinking about creating alternaties there: PeopleTok
There are already alternatives out there that are more free and more open then Facebook & X. E.g. mastodon and pixelfed. Also it is possible to have completely free Podcasts (even with Video). There are sites that keep an index of all the millions of decentralized Podcast Feeds. E.g. look at podcast index. So the technical part there should not be to complicated. It is more an issue of: Do we get enough momentum behind these platforms to that they become a good alternative for the existing social media. The network effect is the important factor here: Only if enough people use the technology then it really serves as a "social network". So this is where you can step in, even if are not a technical person: Try to use and promote these alternatives, even if initally it is not frequented by many of your friends. Be the first who usese it. If your friends tell you to to on WhatsApp to communicate with them: Suggest using signal or even better: matrix
Sometime people show some defeatism here: Because in the end it is almost impossible to be protected against a powerful nation state as an adversary people then give up completely. But every small step helps. Every time you use some extra encryption and some alternative apps you make it harder for them to spy on us. If enough people do this then this has some effect.
Fight against Fascism
But for the moment the most pressing matter is the fight against fascism. With Trump in the USA and the rise of right-wing Nazi parties in Europe and other parts of the world this is the most important issue. But with the prospect of their data falling into the hand of a fascist regime: This it least provides motivation for people to switch to alternative apps and social media sites.
While Trump has announced that he would do something against the TikTok ban, certainly he has no interest in a free exchange of ideas: Either he wants to make money from it by doing deal with his Billionaire friends. But also likely: He want to keep TikTok in a state of precarious dependence on his good will and thus is directly able to influence its algorithm.
What we must not forget: It was Democrats and the Biden administration who also started this. The corruptness of the center parties is the main reasons why we now have fascists in power in the first place.
Franz Schaefer (Mond), Jan 19, 2025
P.S.:
Update: A few minutes after i finished this article TikTok, the US ban was lifted for now. So the argument from the last pragraph is now really important: TikTok is now precariosly dependent on Trump. This is a massive problem.
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