Ars Technica has an article (link at the end of this post) about how China apparently tightens its grip on TikTok. But the hypocrisy is mind boggling: America has done for decades what it accuses China of today.
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I understand the suspicion towards #
TikTok, #
ByteDance and #
China, but the #
hypocrisy in this matter is incredible.
America is afraid China has access to sensitive data of American citizens. That's a valid concern, but the hypocrisy here is astonishing. Even if we were naive enough to believe #
America didn't snoop on everybody in the whole world, #
Snowden made it very, very clear that it does.
Do as you would be done by
Remember the "Safe Haven" agreement we, #
Europe, had with the US, to make sure our data was safe in American hands? Then you also remember that didn't last very long, because America never gave a rat's ass about privacy, especially that of foreigners.
Our "allies", the notorious Five Eyes, didn't even have a problem listening in on phones of European leaders. Merkel's phone was monitored by our trusted allies, to name just one. With friends like that, who needs enemies?
Many US workers complained of long work hours ...
The moves are in part because ByteDance executives believe that TikTok is not performing as effectively as its Chinese operations, suggesting American employees have a lower output than counterparts in China, according to one senior person familiar with the leadership’s thinking.
So? Sounds a lot like what happens at #
Amazon or #
Tesla: squeeze your employees dry. Set very high targets and let them work themselves to death for the lowest wages possible. Unions? You're fired!
Say what?
Apparently TikTok prefers people in some positions to speak #
Mandarin, and apparently that's suspicious.
Several US employees said colleagues who worked on product management and did not speak Mandarin said they were often at a disadvantage because the role required close coordination with engineers in China.
Those companies mentioned before may not push very hard for their overseas employees to speak #
English, but they don't have to, because English is the lingua franca: almost everybody in the western world speaks it.
Things may be very different if they're doing business in China, they might actually prefer people on key positions who speak English. Who knows, I for one would be very surprised if they didn't care. Wanting your employees on important positions to speak your HQ's language doesn't seem unreasonable to me, tbh.
So...
Let me repeat that the concerns are valid: China may not have the best intentions. But America, please look in the mirror before crying wolf. Lead by example, instead of accusing others of the things you've done for decades.
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