@allanb Psst. It’s Zoomers and below who use TikTok mostly. We Millennials aren’t the kids who you want to get off your lawn anymore, we’re too old, the youngest of us are in our mid-30s.
@allanb My point is that you are using a generational term in the sense of “those damn kids who won’t get off my lawn” for a Congresswoman in her mid-30s and also incidentally for me, a woman in her middle age who is a parent with a mortgage.
@MisuseCase The point I was making was an attempt to describe AOC's self interest in TikTok as being Millennial interest, and a conflict of interest (or representation, depending on how you want to look at it.)
@allanb That’s a pretty silly thing to say given the OP’s post about very real financial stakes in the TikTok bill, which AOC doesn’t have (unlike some other Representatives).
Also I don’t use TikTok contrary to your Millennial stereotype, thanks very much. I know some people who do. They use it to promote their businesses or work (fitness training, live performance, crafts, etc.).
AOC may not have monetary interest in TikTok, but she has generational interest (her national constituents are largely Millennials and younger). TikTok is mostly an artifact of Millennials and younger.
The fact remains it is a spying platform, and has been used to put surveillance on journalists and others.
National security interests are being weighed against generational-centered social platforms, and one would expect her to object.
@allanb Well, here’s the thing. I am one of those silly vapid Millennials but I’m also a 15-year cybersecurity professional who’s reasonably familiar with issues like tracking and surveillance in America and the threats posed by various state actors.
TikTok isn’t really a spying platform any more than any other commercial social media network, but Meta, for whom it is a serious competitor, would like the public and the government to think otherwise.
@allanb Even our intelligence agencies, after marching along with Meta beating the Yellow Peril drum for a while, have admitted that TikTok isn’t used for spying.
It doesn’t sell data on its users to American data brokers that they can buy from, which they don’t like, which is part of why they wanted to ban it (or now, they want to get it sold to an American owner).