Rep. Jamaal Bowman launches defense of TikTok as calls to ban app grow

I wouldn't call it forced. Pressured maybe, but more like a "either you sell, or we continue down the trend of banning it." While I realize blocking it nation-wide would be highly unpopular and incur political impacts, I still think we need to head in that direction. help make the app irrelevant and unpopular. But this doesn't happen when we have politicians playing stupid games, setting bad examples, enabling the use of the tool, and ultimately failing to denounce the Chinese government's policies on technology in their nation. It also doesn't help when similar apps owned by US companies play stupid games by building perceptions of collusion with politicians and government officials.

These politicians need to get on board, denounce the Chinese government, set the example by not using the app/encourage all Americans to do the same, and support government bans within all local, state, and federal government systems. Furthermore, extend this ban to cleared defense contracting companies who create sensitive government products and services.

Maj Kevin "Mac" McLaughlin - The problem is that many of itds competitors have dangerous ties too, The Saudi's are a MAJOR investor in TikTok and Facebook And Instagram have some shady connections and practices also, If someone could write something better it would be a great way to make a few billion quickly,but so far the attempts form Alphabet and The other biggies have failed.

Trying to associate TikTok with the other apps fails to understand the problem. The data stored by TikTok is accessible by the Chinese government, without knowledge or consent by the users. Furthermore and unlike the other apps, TikTok has been reverse engineered and experts have confirmed it has “features” consistent with hacker tools, with no justifiable need or use associated with the app. Installing it essentially gives the ability to compromise you device, information on the device (not just TikTok information), on the network it rises on. It’s what I would call a remote access tool (RAT) in my business.

This is not about exposing the videos you watch or make, or the PII you include in your profile. It goes far beyond that.

Evidence? It's been reversed engineered already, they've admitted to the Chinese having used it to collect on individuals in the past, we are well aware of the Chinese laws with regards to technology and their requirement to have access to it, and we are highly aware of China's history and intent to collect intelligence on their enemies (i.e. the US). So, what you're saying is capitulate to the whims and ignorance of GenZ instead of recognizing the problem and actually making a public service denouncement of the application. There are other options which do not pose the following "features" discovered through the reverse engineering assessment:

- Enumeration of phone hardware (cpu type, number of course, hardware ids, screen dimensions, dpi, memory usage, disk space, etc)
- Enumeration of other apps you have installed (I've even seen some I've deleted show up in their analytics payload - maybe using as cached value?)
- Enumeration of fverything network-related (ip, local ip, router mac, your mac, wifi access point name)
- Enumerations of whether or not you're rooted/jailbroken
- Some variants of the app had GPS pinging enabled at the time, roughly once every 30 seconds - this is enabled by default if you ever location-tag a post IIRC
- They set up a local proxy server on your device for "transcoding media", but that can be abused very easily as it has zero authentication
- Logging activity is configured remotely, which makes reverse engineering and trying to determine what ByteDance is actually up to increasingly difficult
- Reverse engineering other popular social media apps like Facebook, Instagram and Twitter didn't find nearly as much data collection going on -- there was absolutely no comparison.

Don't want to piss off the GenZs... Wow! How is this a good example of leadership and making hard decisions?

1. The app has been reverse engineered to discover it contains, for all intents and purposes, malware capabilities, not required for the actual function of the app. Installing it is essentially providing access to your device, the networks it rides on, and your information. But what do I know... I've only been doing this for 28 years. The other apps you named do have the ability to collect certain amounts of information similar to TikTok, but not all and they do not have these additional features which enable further exploits. You are essentially installing a backdoor into your device, network, and then some. But go ahead and install it. I'm sure the Chinese would ignore the ability to collect on you.

2. First of all, US companies are not required to provide the US government information on their users without a legal warrant. By Chinese law, all companies operating within their domain are required to provide their technology specs and access to information to the Chinese government, without a warrant or the knowledge of the individual's whose information is getting captured. Tell me, your profile tag states you are or were an Intelligence Analyst. Are you telling me that the country which has been attributed to the OPM hack, stealing the personal information files and security clearances of over 22 million government personnel records (including me), are going to ignore the unfettered access they have to all those other users with TikTok installed? Really? Because they say they aren't doing that (even though TikTok has admitted they have)? Come on! Let me add that it's not just their information too. They have the ability to use the app to conduct additional cyber exploit operations as well.

I realize we cannot simply ban the app without some serious repercussions politically (not to mention the US side of the business). I am speaking to those who are making it out to not be a big deal, racist, and/or a political back and forth issue. What our "leaders" should be doing instead, overwhelmingly, is denouncing the app, pointing out the dangers, and explaining the fact that the Chinese has and will in fact use the information and capabilities provided by it. It would lose its popularity if there were a strong and apolitical stance against it, coupled with businesses choosing other apps.

But yeah, you don't care. And still, you commented anyway... Sounds about right. Ignorance is bliss, I guess.