Today’s links We should ban TikTok(‘s surveillance): And Google’s, Apple’s, and Facebook’s surveillance, too. Hey look at this: Delights to delectate. This day in history: 2003, 2008, 2013, 2018, 2022 Colophon: Recent publications, upcoming/recent appearances, current writing projects, current reading We should ban TikTok(‘s surveillance) (permalink) With the RESTRICT Act, Congress is proposing to continue Trump’s war on Tiktok, enacting a US ban on the Chinese-owned service. How will they do this? Congress isn’t clear. In practice, banning stuff on the internet is hard, especially if you don’t have a national firewall: https://doctorow.medium.com/theyre-still-trying-to-ban-cryptography-33aa668dc602 My guess is that they’re thinking of ordering the mobile duopoly of Google and Apple to nuke the Tiktok app from their app stores. That’s how they do it in China, after all: when China wanted to ban VPNs and other privacy tools, they just ordered Apple to remove them from the App Store, and Apple rolled over: https://pluralistic.net/2022/11/11/foreseeable-consequences/#airdropped That’s the completely foreseeable consequence of arrogating the power to decide which software every mobile user on earth is entitled to use – as Google and Apple have done. Once you put that gun on the mantelpiece in Act I, you damn betcha that some strong-man backed by a powerful state is going to come along and shoot it by Act III. The same goes for commercial surveillance: once you collect massive, nonconsensual dossiers on every technology user alive, you don’t get to act surprised when cops and spies show up and order your company to serve as…Pluralistic: We should ban TikTok('s surveillance) (30 Mar 2023)