TikTok, the Chinese app that’s taken America’s youth by storm, joins the parade of social media platforms united to ensure U.S.A. election integrity, with fact-check links and the like.
Despite assurances from ByteDance that all U.S. TikTok user data now lives on U.S. servers, recent reports from security experts tracked access to that data from China-based servers. What could possibly go wrong? (Xi Jinping smiles.)
Bill Whittle, Stephen Green and Scott Ott create five new episodes of Right Angle each week thanks to our Members. Membership benefits include access to backstage content, the Member-written blog, forums and comments. To learn more, and join the producers, tap the big green button above.
If you enjoyed this episode, and want to express that tangible, tap the big blue button to make a one-time or recurring donation with bank card or PayPal.
18 replies on “TikTok the Vote: Chinese App to Help Secure U.S.A. Election Integrity (What Could Go Wrong?)”
The. CCP isn’t nearly as totalitarian and authoritarian as today’s democrat party.
Imagine you’re in England, in June, 1940. Then imagine that Winston Churchill is replaced by William Joyce (aka Lord Haw Haw). THAT’S where America is today.
I own a small business and we hire a number of young people. We have found that there is a sickness in this country, and Tik Tok is its name. Most of these people we hire cannot leave their phones in their car, or locker or even in their pockets. They just cannot go 10 minutes without checking Tik Tok. I will give them a warning;,”Put the phone away and do your job or get fired”. It works for at most one day, and then they can’t help themselves, they stare into their phones like some form of hypnoses or trance. They get fired and yet the next one does the same thing even after seeing someone fired for doing what they know will get them the same treatment, but they just can’t stop.
What have we created? The living dead comes to mind. Except they don’t live on brains, they live on Cheetos.
I love Bill’s plan to go after gamers, I hope that it is enough and not too late. This has gotten so much worse since the BS Covid lock downs and the wiping clean of any thoughts in the American teen population.
2000 Mules, Rigged & the [S]election Code are must viewing ….. NOW!!!
I am one of perhaps a couple dozen people in this country who use their phone as a – wait for it – A TELEPHONE! I don’t care about texting, I don’t care about email access, I don’t care about anything related to my phone except for TALKING TO SOMEONE ON IT. Amazing, eh?
I am profoundly disgusted by the jackoffs who can’t drive their motor vehicle because they’re texting; I’m more than disturbed about the actual, viable companies that pimp their “apps” so I can “access” their services. Most disturbingly are those who blindly assume that I will obligingly follow their “text” so as to complete whatever TF their agenda is. Nope. It doesn’t work that way, champs.
I refuse to bow to their “expectations.” Yes, I have a “smart” phone. But I’ll be damned if I allow it to be smarter than I am.
I’m with Bill – I’ve been thinking our elections should be run like America’s Got Talent, where everyone dials in to vote for their candidate. While that would make politics more entertaining to have everyone compete on stage, the receiving system can limit “one vote per phone number”…
Oh, but wait! We already have huge numbers of “spam” calls from robo-callers spoofing real, local numbers. My brother-in-law received a call from is own number once and I’ve been called several times by people saying “you called me just moments ago”.
Imagine how that would just kill any election-by-phone when one party hires an auto-dialer and just makes massive calls for their candidates! Then “real” voters would be denied their vote since their number was already used…
Oh, wait. Didn’t we see something like that in the last election, where people found out they already voted via mail-in?
Dial-in Voting. The way of the Future!
People keep claiming that “We” are responsible for this insanity. I refuse to accept any membership in that collective, so I must declare it is “They” who are responsible. Unfortunately, “They” outnumber “Us” who oppose the destruction of our republic, and when the victim is outnumbered he must find the equalizer, of which we are rapidly running out of peaceful options. For example, Marjorie Taylor Green has apparently been “swatted” two nights in a row, When the lives of individuals are repeatedly threatened by anonymous attackers, then the ultimate outcome will be violent given the defender is outnumbered.
Do I know who “They” are? Not definitively, but I know I am not one of them. I also refuse to censor my words when it comes to calling for all necessary counter attack upon those who would destroy our republic and/or subjugate its citizens.
I too take exception when people use ‘we’ and try to include me in some sort of blame. As if ‘we’ didn’t try hard enough, ‘we’ allowed things to get to this point, ‘we’ ignored the efforts to destroy our Republic until it was too late, ‘we’ slept while the enemy crept in among us … That sort of ‘we’ does not apply to me and I’m not at all sanguine with people including me in their ‘we’ when it comes to that kind of thing.
That said, there certainly are Conservatives that did all those things and if someone is a part of that group, shame on them for their complacency and living in denial of uncomfortable reality for however long they did those things.
But I’m not one of them.
Yes, the Marjorie Taylor-Greene swatting incidents are disturbing. I’m thankful no one was harmed other than losing a little sleep but the intention to harm is crystal clear. Her death would have been the optimal outcome of that tactic as far as the people who used it are concerned. There really is no doubt about that at all.
It was a cowardly attempt at murder. There’s no point in diluting that in any way.
I know who ‘they’ are, not personally by name but certainly by type. ‘They’ have been around for a long time, perhaps as long as human history itself. Every tinpot dictator and tyrant is of the same ilk. Every loyal Party Member, apparatchik and chekist in those tyrannical regimes is the same type too. Historically most of those tyrants rose to power by coincidence and circumstance, they just happened to be in the right place at the right time and were bloodthirsty and ruthless enough to take advantage of the situation they found themselves in.
This goes back at least as far as the Caesars destruction of the Roman Republic. We see it more recently in the French Jacobins, the Nazis, Bolsheviks, the Communist efforts in Asia, Leftist domestic terrorism in the 1960’s etc. It’s all birds of the same feather.
We have the lessons of history to guide us but those lessons are no longer being taught and if taught are not held up as cautionary but laudable.
We will always have those people, the Founders knew this and tried to prepare their newly fledged nation against that type. Strangely those men over 200 years ago were in many ways better educated than any modern college graduate in this sort of thing.
‘They’ are the enemies of our nation and of our society. I don’t know all their names but I certainly recognize their type. The type is obvious.
I don’t think they’re anything approaching a majority. That doesn’t mean the threat isn’t real. It only took between 10% and 25% of the population directly participating in the American Revolution to send the tyrant King George packing. That was by no means easy but it also was by no means an effort made by the majority of the Colonists living in America at the time. There is genuine danger here today majority or more likely not.
The question is what to do about them? That’s the real conundrum. That type tends to manipulate and the more powerful they become the more effective and efficient their manipulations evolve.
It’s of vital importance if we want to thwart “… those who would destroy our republic and/or subjugate its citizens” that we avoid helping them do that. Helping them means not only not resisting their efforts but doing exactly the things they want us to do which will amplify those efforts.
You said …
… yet you don’t say what “all necessary counter attack” actually involves. Just what do you mean by that? In context that could mean anything from using pop culture to outright armed attack. If you’re not going to censor your words then go ahead, don’t censor yourself and explain that. Speak plainly if you’re not ‘censoring your words’ so we can understand just exactly what you mean by that.
I’m not being snarky with you. I want to know if maybe you’ve seen some means to oppose these enemies of ours that has not occurred to me. I’m not dumb but I don’t know everything and I can’t think of everything. You’re no dummy either so I’m asking you to clarify your intent. Depending on that clarification I will not censor my words either and will either support what you said, as I did above with this preposterous ‘we’ phenomenon, or I will tell you why I don’t. If you’re going to be oblique and not speak plainly then you are censoring your words and that just isn’t helpful. As I’m sure you know.
So what is it you think is “all necessary counter attack”? What counterattack are you referring to?
This month’s USCCA magazine (August/September 2022) says you should never say anything on social media, or the internet, that could be used against you by a prosecutor. So presenting exact details of a plan of opposition to these enemies, per your request, would be a bad idea. Article: “Social media record – anything you like will be used against you” page 46-47. Figure out another way to contact the person to get the information, for both your sakes.
Oh, I’m acutely aware of the risks and dangers of saying things on the internet. You’re not telling me anything I haven’t known for years and I don’t need a magazine to tell me about that either. I was forced into a career change decades ago by a life altering injury and the career path I chose is IT. Read my profile.
That’s not the point I’m making. I never say anything on the internet that can be used against me in any sort of criminal proceedings and I strongly advise others not to do that either.
I also don’t say things like:
“I also refuse to censor my words when it comes to calling for all necessary counter attack upon those who would destroy our republic and/or subjugate its citizens.”
If you want people to take the things you say seriously then you can’t say things like that.
The emphasis is mine but those are words you’ll find in Dave Pimental’s post above that I’m replying to. Clearly they’re bullshit and my tolerance for bullshit is as low as my tolerance for anything can be.
Dave did censor himself while claiming he refuses to do that very thing. That’s about as bullshit as it gets and that was my point.
Doing something like that negates what you say.
I know you mean well and what you say is absolutely true. Even so, you appear to have missed my point. I’m not really asking Dave to commit a felony and he knows better than to do that or he would have answered me. Had he replied with the things he claims he refuses to censor himself over my respect for him would have evaporated completely. Because then he’s not just blustering and letting off steam, he’s stupid to boot.
What I was trying to do, perhaps too subtly, was let him know he made painfully clear that he is not willing to refuse to censor himself while I pointed out, again perhaps too subtly, that not guarding what you say in public is a dumb thing to do.
Especially under your own name, where it can be captured and archived by internet search engines. Forever living in a cache somewhere even if you delete things you posted under it. Which makes it amazingly easy for those who wish you ill to find and use against you.
So if you knew all this too, I sincerely hope that “Brooks Martin” is an alias and not the name on your birth certificate and driver’s license.
Because if you knew what I know you would never, ever use your real name on any public facing internet site.
People don’t bare their souls on Tik Tok. They bare other things that should NEVER be seen in public.
Tik-tok voting. Ever see the movie “Brazil”? That IS where we’re headed.
Why do they feel the need to be involved in politics? I’m sure it is the same thing that makes people want to “go into journalism”.
I went to (and still work at) a college whose journalism school has consistently been in the top 3 and of course I knew a lot of “J” majors while I was in school (I did not major in Journalism).
I remember asking many of them “why did you choose journalism?” I got the same two answers from most of them. Low math requirement and … to “make a difference”.
“Make a difference”. Not to uncover the truth. But to “make a difference”. If that’s your primary motive, why should I trust your story?
Many years ago, Scott told an anecdote about his entry into PSU. I am paraphrasing, but it was something like this.
Can you do math? Yes, the engineering school is to your right.
No, the Journalism school is to your left.
Yes! Steve! That’s a great word. I think the worst thing, though, is the inanity it programs into us.
The Babylon Bee has a “News Flash” that Tik Tok has made Americans too dumb to be useful to the Chinese anymore.
That’s funny!
And sad.
And maybe “true” ???????????