Hawaii residents' income threatened by loss of Tic-Tok

[TomK]

Poor TomK can't look up unfamiliar words or do a Google search, but I'm here to help:

https://www.androidcentral.com/tiktok-wa...king-users

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cybersecur...0the%20law.

"Article 28 compels vaguely defined "network operators", (interpreted to include: social media platforms, application creators and other technology companies), to cooperate with public security organs such as the Ministry of Public Security and hand over information when requested.

Article 28: Network operators shall provide technical support and assistance to public security organs and national security organs that are safeguarding national security and investigating criminal activities in accordance with the law."

Thank you! I missed my course on Chinese laws because I was playing cricket at the time, but appreciate you helping me catch up!

[Punatang]

Well, we know the reasons


Exactly.  Leverage.  Tic-Tok is now a hostage.

[MyManao]

The only Tic-Tok videos I've watched are when someone else on another site points to one that shows extreme idiocy. I think it's a site for idiots, but I don't understand why it should be banned.

Tic Tok is a drug designed to make its users stupid.. INTENTIONALLY!

From.. https://www.deseret.com/2022/11/24/23467...nd-the-us/

Is TikTok different in China compared to the U.S.? A social media analyst compares it to opium and spinach

TikTok in China

Although they’re both owned by ByteDance, Douyin — China’s version of TikTok — offers a different version of the social media app that is unavailable to the rest of the world, especially for children. 

“It’s almost like they recognize that technology is influencing kids’ development, and they make their domestic version a spinach version of TikTok, while they ship the opium version to the rest of the world,” Tristan Harris, a former Google employee, and advocate for social media ethics, said of China’s approach to TikTok.

In my original post I said all algorithm driven social media should be banned. Seriously, why should we let advertisers, and social media conglomerates that sell control of their feeds to whoever pays the most, have a say, any say at all, in what we think?

And yes TomK, you are right, the folks on Tic Tok are morons. But hey, so are most Americans. Just look at the new crop of folks who have taken over PW. They're batshit crazy.

[HiloJulie]

Let's be clear. The people making "content" are not the dumb stupid ones. Well, let's be further clearer, their content might be dumb and stupid, but they aren't. They are just exploiting the system, and in a lot of cases, making huge huge money off of it.

Now, the really dumb stupid ones - are the "consumers" of that content. And even dumber and stupider when they believe it.

At any event, have you ever noticed sometimes while having a casual conversation with a few people, who all have smart phones and some may be on FB, X, Tiktok, et al and the conversation for example, but let's just say someone talks about buying a new freezer. 

You may notice that you will shortly start seeing ads popping in whatever various search engines you use - about freezers for sale!

Just start paying close attention, you will see what I mean!

At any event, who needs any of that social media crap when we have PunaWeb! Right?

"Just look at the new crop of folks who have taken over PW. They're batshit crazy."

Well, being the expert that you have shown repeatedly that you are at being batshit crazy, I got to agree MyManao! 

As for the "new crop" who has "taken over" PunaWeb, well maybe it was time for a change. Afterall, how long can one wax nostalgic about taro farming in Waipio Valley in the 90's, saving everyone singlehandedly during the Kalapana Lava Flows and endless paragraphs about website hosting when a 2400 baud rate rotary dial up modem was "hi-speed?"

[TomK]

The only Tic-Tok videos I've watched are when someone else on another site points to one that shows extreme idiocy. I think it's a site for idiots, but I don't understand why it should be banned.

Tic Tok is a drug designed to make its users stupid.. INTENTIONALLY!

There's a rather obvious flaw in that claim. In the meantime, I see little difference between a state ordering certain books to be banned or burned and a state shutting down Tic-Tok. I would have thought that countries with educated people could rely on the population to decide what to read or watch because they are free to make their own choices.  On the other hand, there are places like North Korea, China, Russia, and a few others I certainly wouldn't want to live in that have the opposite opinion. I hope we don't join that list. Given how left-wing Hawaiian politicians are, it would be the state I would expect to be among the first to attempt to implement such policies, but it turns out to be the opposite. The evangelistic right-wing states have been trying to ban books for decades.

If Hawaiian Tic-Tok authors make money from stupid people, well, that's just the way the world works. Tic-Tok is not a drug; it's not designed to make people stupid, it just attracts stupid people, and that's how it makes money.

[Punatang]

Tic-Tok is not a drug; it's not designed to make people stupid, it just attracts stupid people,


I'm so grateful that we have Punaweb and are able to avoid that problem.

[Durian Fiend]

If Hawaiian Tic-Tok authors make money from stupid people, well, that's just the way the world works. Tic-Tok is not a drug; it's not designed to make people stupid, it just attracts stupid people, and that's how it makes money.

Making money off foolish or objectionable content isn't the issue. National security concerns, ya know?

US, UK, Australia, New Zealand and Canada have already banned it from government devices.

[HiloJulie]

To be clear, TikTok was not "banned" over free speech. 

It was banned due to H.R. 7521, known as the “Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act."

This bill passed the House and the Senate with overwhelming bi-partisan support and signed into law on April 24, 2024.

This bill was a result of a former Executive Order issued on August 6, 2020, that was held up and never implemented due to numerous lawsuits, a revised Executive Order and so on. In December of 2022 the "No TikTok on Government Devices Act" was signed into law and became effective in February of 2023.

In March of 2024, H.R. 7521 was introduced in the House, voted and passed and sent to the Senate where it was voted on and passed and then signed into law on April 24, 2024, which set the deadline of January 19, 2025, for TikTok's owner to divest itself TikTok entirely or cease operation in America. Further, after numerous legal challenges, the Supreme Court just recently upheld the law. 

You can read what H.R. 7521 is all about, with the link provided, but the core premise behind the bill was not to censor content but to stop the alleged collection of personal data by TikTok's China based owners from the phones and computers of the users in America. The bill requires TikTok's owner to divest itself TikTok entirely.

On Monday, January 20, 2025 another Executive Order was signed extending the deadline for 75 to 90 days, which is a permissible condition contained in the law that bans TikTok.

All this being said, and while I am in complete agreement of all things "free speech," TikTok's ban, although it could be blamed as an attempt at stifling free speech, it really is about "National Security," real or perceived.

So, even little Miss Hawaii and her TikTok page can continue for now, although I am highly skeptical of her claim as Tom pointed out, that to see the sunrise, I should look to and go to the East!

Since "Mr. Beast" of YouTube massive fame and fortune has entered the ring of potential buyers of TikTok, I was thinking maybe Rob and Moderator 2 could make an offer? 

What's 20ish billion between friends?

[MyManao]

There's a rather obvious flaw in that claim..

I wonder, did you come to your conclusions via the scientific method? You know, gather and analyse the data and let the facts take you where they will? Or, perchance, is that just you shootin' from the hip?

Maybe you need better data?

Try this..

From.. https://www.rand.org/pubs/commentary/202...t-for.html

TikTok Is a Threat to National Security, but Not for the Reason You Think

And here's a snippet, follow the link above for the whole enchilada.

Some 170 million Americans use TikTok, and many of them will be incredibly upset if they lose access to their favorite social media app. Earlier this year, the government enacted a law forcing the company to divest its U.S. operations or face a ban, and congressional phone lines were overwhelmed due to the sheer volume of calls in protest of the legislation. The discourse surrounding the national security implications of the app overlooks a critical threat—an unprecedented corpus of videos ideal for training advanced deepfake-generating AI systems. In the face of lukewarm public opinion about the ban and the inevitable legal action, it is essential that U.S. lawmakers understand and emphasize this risk. 

In early 2024, a Hong Kong-based employee at a British engineering company transferred over $25 million to foreign accounts after receiving oral authorization from his CFO in a few routine Zoom meetings. This would have been standard procedure, except that the CFO, and all the other employees on the calls, were impersonations created by scammers using artificial intelligence (AI). 

“Deepfake” scams of this magnitude are still rare, and a keen eye can usually differentiate AI-generated videos from reality. News outlets were quick to expose a deepfake of President Biden used to discourage voting in New Hampshire and a deepfake of State Department spokesman Matthew Miller stating that a Russian city was a legitimate target for Ukraine's use of U.S. weapons. 

As AI systems rapidly scale, however, these fabrications are increasingly hard to distinguish. In the not-too-distant future, eyes and ears may no longer be reliable sensors of truth. It is easy to imagine the national security implications of an adversary artificially generating videos of Americans doing and saying anything they please. 
It is easy to imagine the national security implications of an adversary artificially generating videos of Americans doing and saying anything they please.

To curb foreign development of these and other dangerous AI capabilities, the government controls exports of semiconductors, the physical underpinning of AI. Equal emphasis, however, should be placed on cross-border transfers of large datasets, or bulk data, the fuel for generative AI systems. This means reexamining foreign controlled data-aggregation platforms, especially TikTok. 

The U.S. government has raised several objections to TikTok's data collection practices, mainly focused on American users' sensitive personal information. TikTok has responded to these concerns by creating Project Texas, an initiative to store “protected U.S. user data” such as emails, birthdays, and behavioral data on U.S.-based Oracle servers. 

Safeguarding this kind of data is important, but equally significant national security risks emerge from the flood of publicly posted videos. TikTok assures that “U.S. users of the TikTok platform can still communicate and interact with global users for a cohesive global experience.” This is the problem. The videos that users post publicly are not subject to Project Texas restrictions and can still end up on foreign servers. 

Most of the individual videos that Americans post on social media platforms are harmless at face value, but the 34 million videos posted daily on TikTok become ideal training material for massive generative AI models. These models will be able to create astonishingly convincing deepfakes and could be used to launch discreet, large-scale, and highly targeted influence operations. This is not an abstract future threat. Policymakers need to understand that in the age of generative AI, bulk audiovisual data can be more valuable than the birthdays and email addresses users use to sign up for apps like TikTok.

Chinese actors have already used generative AI to spread disinformation. They have also used TikTok to spread anti-American propaganda within the United States. TikTok itself releases monthly lists of uncovered covert influence operations on the app, and they showed that in May 2024 a network with hundreds of thousands of followers “operated from China and targeted a US audience. The individuals behind this network created inauthentic accounts in order to artificially amplify narratives that the US is corrupt and unsafe.” 

TikTok encourages users to post vertical videos with a 9:16 aspect ratio. This uniformity in structure, along with the diverse content of the posts, makes them perfect for training deep learning models. In addition, the dynamic watermarking that TikTok adds to all uploaded videos makes it difficult (PDF) for other actors to scrape these videos for AI training purposes, meaning TikTok, and by extension its parent company ByteDance, essentially have sole access to the training material. 

ByteDance is no stranger to creating large-scale generative AI systems. They are responsible for one of China's most advanced large language models, MegaScale. This infrastructure, combined with exclusive access to an increasingly massive body of audiovisual information of Americans engaging in a vast array of activities, provides the resources to make some of the most advanced deepfakes in the world. This poses a grave threat to U.S. national security.

And BTW, TomK, saying only stupid Americans use the site, as a way to excuse the stupidity it promotes, is a poor argument. Children use it. It literally is designed to put thoughts in their heads.. it makes people stupid.

[HiloJulie]

Someone's always listining.

Even Siri.

Even here in Hawaii.