A stereotype is that Liberal MPs are old and out of touch when it comes to the internet. In a recent TikTok rant, one MP proved that stereotype to be accurate.
There’s a general stereotype that politicians are old and have no clue how the internet works. Very often, they say things that make it absolutely clear that they have no idea how the internet works. This is, by no means, a uniquely Canadian thing. After all, there is a reason why US Senator, Ted Stevens, went viral for his “a series of tubes” comments back in 2006. Stevens isn’t the first politician to have a strong opinion on something he knows little about and would be far from the last.
In recent years, one of the persistent conspiracy theories featuring prominently in mainstream media and within the halls of government (not just in Canada) is that TikTok is some sort of Chinese government mind controlling device. The conspiracy theories floating around TikTok includes how TikTok is somehow secretly activating your web cams and microphones to listen in on everything that is going on in the room. This while using their algorithms to brainwash users into doing everything the Chinese government wants people to do.
Probably the biggest mystery in all of this is how the heck these conspiracy theories were ever treated seriously in the first place. Really, the normal response to such conspiracy theories would be to roll your eyes and ask if the person is off their medication. Yet, rather than get laughed off for the silliness that it is, apparently, there is enough senile old people working within news rooms of mainstream media outlets as well as within the halls of government to actually believe these things. Before the recent US election, this really was one of, if not, the biggest signs that the lunatics have taken over the asylum.
There isn’t just mockery associated with the whole TikTok, either. After all, the US security establishment was asked to come up with evidence that the Chinese government was using TikTok to spy on people overseas. In response, representatives from the security establishment responded on the record by basically saying, ‘we got nothing‘. Instead, all they were working with was pure hypotheticals and theories, but no evidence to back this up. For all the media outlets repeatedly talking about “security concerns” surrounding TikTok, you’d think there would be, you know, evidence to back that up. The problem is, there never was evidence to back this up.
The response from the security establishment at the time was not really surprising. Let’s think rationally for a moment. If there well and truly were major security concerns specifically associated with TikTok, it wouldn’t be random lawmakers and people who are otherwise nobodies being the ones to raise these concerns. There are countless security researchers poking and prodding at anything and everything, trying to find private information or security holes to report about. After all, if you are in the security field, it doesn’t get much better than finding a major security flaw or concern with a big name service. In other words, we would be hearing alarm from the security community long before politicians and media outlets started freaking out about all of this – and not just alarm, but actual evidence associated with it to back up their claims.
None of the scenarios in the previous paragraph ever happened, however. In fact, online security and privacy companies have repeatedly examined TikTok as a platform and found that they don’t do anything out of the norm for your standard social media web service. If TikTok is doing it, so is Facebook, YouTube, Amazon, X/Twitter, Twitch, and pretty much every other closed source for profit social media platform. If there was concern with how TikTok collected personal information, the simple solution is to table and pass strong federal level privacy reform for all the platforms to abide by. That would take time, but it would go a long way to addressing whatever security and privacy concerns there could possibly be from TikTok. Banning TikTok does literally nothing to fix any privacy and security concerns raised in this debate.
All this alone should force the “TikTok concerns” to poof in a cloud of logic, but fortunately, reality has decided to gracefully provide even more rock solid evidence that shows that we are, as usual, right about these things. In October, the wiretap system used by AT&T to track people was compromised by Chinese hackers for a very long period of time. In other words, the Chinese government was listening in on people’s communications directly through the provider which is arguably exponentially more valuable data for the government to have their hands on.
Then, earlier this month, news broke that the Chinese government had gained access to Canadian government services on top of it all. Again, that would be, arguably, a higher value target. Why would the Chinese government bother with such exploits if they were getting anything and everything they wanted through TikTok? It doesn’t make any sense, does it?
That’s not even getting into how the Chinese government itself banned TikTok in the first place. This over top of the fact that the Liberal party itself continues to use TikTok even as Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, recommended that Canadian’s should stop using it.
Yet, despite all the evidence, that seemingly didn’t stop the Canadian government from acting anyway. Citing little more than the conspiracy theories about Chinese government thought control, the Canadian government moved to ban TikTok – the company, not the app. So, how does demanding the closure of the business somehow solve the security concerns? Well, feel free to explain because experts across the board, including myself, can’t figure that one out. If anything, it worsens the security concerns because if RCMP have a warrant, what Canadian office do they turn to if the office is closed down? The only thing this move solves is ending the jobs of hundreds of Canadians and making it harder for Canadian creators to succeed on the platform – as if that was ever a “problem” that “needed solving” in the first place.
The complete and utter nonsense of a move, unsurprisingly, sparked outrage by digital creators. Moreover, TikTok said that they planned on suing the government over the decision, meaning that this complete nonsense move is destined to waste taxpayer money in the form of legal fees to defend the move on top of it all.
It’s a complete cluster of a situation to say the least, lost in the vastness of ignorance, conspiracy theory, and stupidity. It really leads one to wonder, is the government completely without a clue in all of this? Apparently, there was a committee hearing discussing the move and Liberal MP, Brenda Shanahan, decided to leave no doubt that the government really is clueless on this whole sorry affair. From Michael Geist:
Ethics committee debated a motion yesterday on holding a hearing on the TikTok corporate ban. Liberal MP response?
“I would advise all Canadians against having TikTok accounts…young people love TikTok but I think there is already a sufficient number of apps and platforms of sharing content.”— Michael Geist (@mgeist.bsky.social) November 22, 2024 at 5:52 AM
Yup, you heard that right from the MP, Canadian’s are advised not to use the app for the completely logical reason of ¯_(ツ)_/¯. Also, Canadians sure are creative, but there’s lots of apps out there. So, really, creators on TikTok should just make the totally simple move of going from one platform to another. Also, the MP is very sure she’s not a complete dingbat because she’s heard something and is there for really really smart on the subject.
A question in all of this that made me sit and thing hard on is “where the hell do you even begin with that cluster of a comment?” I mean, for someone who loves to talk about “common sense”, nothing about what she said even came close to the concept of common sense. If anything, one could argue that maybe the MP was having a senior moment. So, I’ll just make an attempt to try and untangle the insanity that spouted from the MP in question.
First of all, there is no evidence to suggest that TikTok is uniquely threatening to people’s privacy and security. What does TikTok do that platforms like Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, or a host of other for profit platforms doesn’t do? The answer is nothing. Nothing makes Tiktok a unique security and privacy threat in the world of social media. If you are concerned and the privacy implications of TikTok, then the most social media you would ever find yourself using is Mastodon, though you’d have to be running your own instance just to start your journey into protecting your own personal privacy.
Second, saying that successful creators should make a simple move to another app is clearly demonstrating that they have never used the platforms to create content in the first place. There are a lot of rules, quirks, and systems in each platform that differ from each other. What may work on one platform won’t necessarily work on another. It’s not as simple as creating an account on another platform and just continuing on with business as usual by any means.
Besides, it’s not the place of an MP of any political party dictating which platform a creator should and shouldn’t use in the first place.
If the Liberal party wanted to show that they are proceeding with logic and reason, Shanahan just proved otherwise with those completely insane comments. Everything about that clip showed pure ignorance and demonstrated that she’s an MP with a strong opinion on a topic she knows nothing about. The comments she had in that moment were bad and she should feel bad.
