Other Apps From Chinese Developers Are Also at Risk ⇥ theguardian.com

Amy Hawkins and Helen Davidson, the Guardian:

In theory, many of the accusations that have been levelled against TikTok – such as that it is bad for children’s mental health or engages in censorship of political topics – should be less applicable to other Chinese apps that are popular in the west. Fast fashion and cheap cosmetics are less controversial than algorithmically delivered content that is seen as shaping young minds. And shopping apps like Temu and Shein are dependent on physical supply chains, so they are less able to change or mask their Chinese links.

But US lawmakers have warned that any Chinese-owned apps could be vulnerable to data privacy breaches or interference from the Chinese Communist party.

This was one of the problems with last month’s TikTok hearing: the lack of focus muddied any substantive discussion which may have accidentally occurred. Because some lawmakers were preoccupied with the effects of social media on the health of children, their questions to TikTok’s CEO were a mix of legitimate worries about all social media apps, private parenting concerns, and moral panic.¹ Others spent time questioning the influence of the Chinese government, with one representative calling the app a “Chinese spy balloon in your pocket”.

Setting aside the questionable logic of that metaphor, if privacy and security are topics of concern, banning individual apps is a laughable countermeasure. Not only will it be an extraordinary amount of work — especially with all the time the government will spend in court because of how it is legally dubious — but it will be useless so long as the United States lacks strong privacy legislation.

By the way, though this Guardian article and, therefore, my response are focused on the U.S., it applies similarly to countries around the world, including the one I live in. The something we have here is better than nothing, but it is nowhere near as effective as it needs to be. The question is whether the Canadian government will grow a spine and prohibit things which will necessarily render some parts of our digital economy unviable.