What’s Behind the Bipartisan Attack on TikTok?

2023/4/14

The New Yorker Radio Hour

AI Deep Dive AI Chapters Transcript

C

Chris Stokel-Walker

D

David Remnick

E

Evan Osnos

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国会议员

David Remnick: 本期节目讨论了美国两党对TikTok的担忧，以及这种担忧背后的政治因素。两党都对中国采取强硬立场，并对科技公司持怀疑态度，因此，禁止TikTok的想法获得了广泛支持。 Chris Stokel-Walker: 虽然对所有社交媒体平台都应保持警惕，但他认为TikTok并非如许多人认为的那样构成安全威胁。他认为，中国政府可以通过其他西方社交媒体平台获取相同的信息，对TikTok的担忧更多是基于其与中国的关联。他认为，TikTok的成功在于降低了内容创作的门槛，但这也带来了一些负面影响。他还指出，国会听证会未能提供TikTok与中国政府之间存在直接联系的证据，并批评了听证会上一些提问的低水平。 Evan Osnos: 他认为，对TikTok的抵制情绪是美国对华态度日益强硬的体现，这与中美关系的恶化有关。他还指出，一些年轻的国会议员对禁止TikTok持反对意见，这可能是因为他们更了解年轻人对TikTok的使用情况。他认为，美国缺乏有效的联邦法律来保护公民的数据安全，这才是更重要的问题。国会议员: 国会议员们对TikTok的数据安全和用户隐私问题表示担忧，质疑TikTok是否会将用户数据提供给中国政府，并对TikTok的算法可能被用于传播宣传表示担忧。 Chris Stokel-Walker: 他认为，禁止TikTok可能会导致本土替代品的出现，但这些替代品可能无法与TikTok竞争，并且大型科技公司可能会从中获益。他还指出，对TikTok的担忧并非美国独有，许多国家都采取了类似的措施。他认为，解决TikTok问题，需要政府加强监管，同时个人也需要提高自我保护意识。他建议，用户不应在社交媒体上使用真实姓名，定期清理数据，并重置TikTok算法。

Deep Dive

The podcast discusses the bipartisan push to ban TikTok in the U.S., focusing on concerns about data security and potential Chinese government influence over the app's content and user data.

Shownotes Transcript

A ban of the Chinese social-media app TikTok, first floated by the Trump Administration, is now gaining real traction in Washington. Lawmakers of both parties fear the app could be manipulated by Chinese authorities to gain insight into American users and become an effective tool for propaganda against the United States. “Tiktok arrived in Americans’ lives in about 2018 . . . and in some ways it coincided with the same period of collapse in the U.S.-China relationship,” the staff writer Evan Osnos) tells David Remnick. “If you’re a member of Congress, you look at TikTok and you say, ‘This is the clearest emblem of my concern about China, and this is something I can talk about and touch.’ ” Remnick also talks with the journalist Chris Stokel-Walker—who has written extensively about TikTok and argued against a ban—regarding the global political backlash against the app. “I think we should be suspicious of all social media, but I don’t think that TikTok is the attack vector that we think it is,” he says. “This is exactly the same as any other platform.”