>The difference between TikTok and WeChat and FB/Google/Twitter is obvious: the former are to some degree controlled by China and the latter are private entities.
to some degree? No, they are completely controlled by China.
> "WeChatApp spies on the content that all users send to each other, including Americans. The results are fed into their censorship of Chinese users" [1]
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Key findings rom the Citizen lab research report, which is quite comprehensive [2]:
> Documents and images transmitted entirely among non-China-registered accounts undergo content surveillance wherein these files are analyzed for content that is politically sensitive in China.
>Upon analysis, files deemed politically sensitive are used to invisibly train and build up WeChat’s Chinese political censorship system.
> to some degree? No, they are completely controlled by China.
This is a matter of perspective.
Do you think the question is "if the CCP tells Tencent to do something, will they do it?", or "does Tencent do anything the CCP doesn't tell it to do?"?
And at the same time FB/Google/Twitter are controlled by US government. If they do something "wrong", they get called to Congress to talk and change their mind. This is not what a truly independent company would do. Truly independent company would tell Congress to mind their own business and not bother them.
There has never existed a time that ''truly independent businesses'' existed. The closest we got was the Gilded Age and it was an absolute mess, with child labor here and rampant exploitation of people there. Companies simply cannot be trusted to do what is right or to prioritize anything except making money for their shareholders, so they most definitely should be restricted by democratic institutions.
Congress can't actually tell the companies what to do. They can call them to testify, and they are obligated to show up, but they can stonewall or spout PR, and Congress can't do anything.
Ah. Bunch of 60+ ppl trying to figure out how tech works and then think of laws governing the said tech which should appear to be fair and useful. Sweet.
to some degree? No, they are completely controlled by China.
> "WeChatApp spies on the content that all users send to each other, including Americans. The results are fed into their censorship of Chinese users" [1]
-
Key findings rom the Citizen lab research report, which is quite comprehensive [2]:
> Documents and images transmitted entirely among non-China-registered accounts undergo content surveillance wherein these files are analyzed for content that is politically sensitive in China.
>Upon analysis, files deemed politically sensitive are used to invisibly train and build up WeChat’s Chinese political censorship system.
[1] https://twitter.com/jsrailton/status/1258391908319137797
[2] https://citizenlab.ca/2020/05/we-chat-they-watch/