Clemson University to ban TikTok on all campus networks effective Monday, July 10.

    • ChrisLicht@lemm.ee
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      42
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      1 year ago

      I’m not following. Can you elaborate a bit on how a private university banning TikTok is fascism?

      • lps2@lemmy.ml
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        3
        ·
        1 year ago

        Clemson isn’t private, it’s public. It is certainly their prerogative to secure their network and their users’ data but there are definitely concerns over government censorship. I don’t think this issue is as black and white as people ITT are making it out to be and absent a larger policy stance that would van TikTok or it’s practices, I’m not sure this is the right move though I understand their position given the inaction of state and national legislatures in banning foreign spyware

        • zaph@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          4
          ·
          1 year ago

          They’re not banning their students from using tiktok, they’re blocking access to a website on their own networks. That is how network security works. I have many IP addresses block for many customers because some website shouldn’t be accessed on networks with PII. It’s really not that complicated.

          • lps2@lemmy.ml
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            1
            ·
            1 year ago

            I’m well aware - as a public university things are a bit different as they are agents of the state so this becomes a free speech issue. Also, if a university’s student internet is the same network containing PII systems like their student records, there are much bigger problems. That’s why I mentioned that this action without any legislation that would curtail Bytedance’s data collection presents a student rights conundrum. The app does not (as far as we are aware) inject or capture information from the users network but rather the user themselves which they have consented to. The larger issue is whether or not the US should allow foreign entities to collect this info and that’s not something the university should be able to decide but rather the state and federal regulatory agencies and legislatures

          • Red Wizard 🪄@lemmygrad.ml
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            2
            arrow-down
            6
            ·
            1 year ago

            It’s weird to think that you would support banning TikTok because of the influence China might have on US Culture, but are totally cool with the fact that Facebook is a tool of cultural export across the whole globe. I don’t remember the last time TikTok was the instrument of genocide, but hey, if you want to support that, go for it.

          • Alkider@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            2
            ·
            1 year ago

            I never said that shortform content is bad or that tik tok should be banned. I just couldn’t care less about the app because it just doesn’t have anything in particular that interests me. If it did I would be using tik tok and not lemmy lol. The comment above just kinda rubbed me the wrong way i guess.

          • Red Wizard 🪄@lemmygrad.ml
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            3
            arrow-down
            3
            ·
            1 year ago

            Then don’t use TikTok? But also, TikTok does up to 10min videos? It’s weird that your reaction is “Shortform content is bad and we should ban the app”

            • Alkider@lemmy.world
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              2
              ·
              1 year ago

              Oops, I think I just sent the response to myself lol. but yeah. Vine was entertaining. Tik tok just didn’t click with me.

      • Red Wizard 🪄@lemmygrad.ml
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        2
        arrow-down
        4
        ·
        edit-2
        1 year ago

        Because there is no real Operational Security justification for its ban, that doesn’t instantly catch all US-based social media platforms as well. It’s not about security, it’s about control. The feds have no under-the-table deals or even overt surveillance partnerships with TikTok. They do have that with Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and beyond. In fact, the CIA has financial stakes with those companies as well, and often were early sources of funding for them: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/social-media-is-a-tool-of-the-cia-seriously/

        Which I guess is fine because the CIA has never been the enemy of the American people, ever.

        • zaph@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          4
          ·
          1 year ago

          So an American school doesn’t block an American website that American intelligence agencies have access to and you’re wondering why they wouldn’t allow a Chinese website that Chinese intelligence agencies probably have access to? I completely agree that Meta and Twitter and all that are horrible for security but it’s still relevant who houses that data. I choose not to use any of them but it’s completely understandable why a country would hesitate to trust a foreign nation we have no relevant triety with.

          • Red Wizard 🪄@lemmygrad.ml
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            2
            arrow-down
            4
            ·
            1 year ago

            The Chinese agencies have access to whatever data they want on you. There is no moratorium on data brokers doing business with China. Even if there were, they would get that data from one of their BRICS partners.

            So they have data from TikTok. Now what? What’s next? What’s the threat they pose with that data to the American people or the students and faculty at this university?

            What is the university protecting it’s network from specifically?

            The CIA has a long history of unlawfully monitoring and retaliating against US Citizens for advocating against US policy, like opposing the war in Vietnam.

            From a historical standpoint, it would appear that citizens of the United States have more to fear from the CIA then they do from the People’s Republic of China.

    • Dark Arc@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      11
      ·
      1 year ago

      facism: a political philosophy, movement, or regime (such as that of the Fascisti) that exalts nation and often race above the individual and that stands for a centralized autocratic government headed by a dictatorial leader, severe economic and social regimentation, and forcible suppression of opposition

      I think you’d be better off just saying censorship.

      Ultimately though we’ve never seen anything like this, the old school rules for what constitutes acceptable censorship might need some adjusting (especially as society learns more about what closed source algorithms made by hostile foreign powers used by the youth – and general population – of a nation can actually do to said nation).