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As of this writing, the future of TikTok hangs in the balance, and swaths of TikTok refugees are popping over to RedNote. RedNote is Chinas version of Instagram with around 300 million users. This is a bad idea. Ive been astounded at how cavalier people have been about it. I get a whiff of two distinct sentiments underlying this behavior: A defeatism around being farmed for data, resulting in a Who cares, what does it matter? attitude. A presumption that Americawith its corporate oligarchs, big tech monopolies, and titanic military industrial complexis just as bad as China, if not worse. These points are simply not rooted in the real world. It does matter for us as individual and as Americans who has access to our data at scale. Those adopting RedNote as an F-you the U.S. governments TikTok ban are cutting our countrys nose off to spite its face. I know, I know Big Tech is predatory Ill be the first one to call out the predatory nature of Big Tech. Twitter/X selling user data to surveillance firms and law enforcement with zero oversight. Facebook manipulating users through their news feeds on top of the Cambridge Analytica scandal. YouTube becoming a pipeline for radicalizing young men. Instagram damaging the mental health of children, particularly girls. The buying, selling, and manipulation of our data and our minds has become so commonplace that its nihilistically accepted as a fact of life. Big Tech is almost always backed by Big Finance. ByteDance, which owns TikTok, is backed by Sequoia Capital China, General Atlantic, SoftBank, Morgan Stanley, and Goldman Sachs, among others. RedNote itself enjoys backing from American-founded VCs like GSR Ventures, who, along with GGV Capital, Sequoia Capital, and Walden International, among others, have invested more than $3 billion in Chinese technology companies linked to the countrys military, surveillance, and human rights abuses. Are we cooked, as the kids say? Maybe, but thats no reason to turn up the temperature on ourselves. The frying pan is better than the fire. Care about yourself Unlike TikTok, which stores American user data on U.S. servers owned by Oracle, RedNote would collect your data and send it straight to China. Why should you care your data is being harvested, and where its going? Firstly, this data can be used against you in phishing attempts and identity theft, ordeals that can impact you for decades. While criminals are doing the phishing and identity-thieving in the U.S., Id bet its being performed by more sophisticated, capable attackers in China. Your online content could be used to create deepfakes that fool other victims. Secondly, youve probably heard some version of TikTok is a psyop. I dont believe this is overblown. The Chinese version of TikTok restricts content under a certain age to educational, scientific, artistic, and otherwise more enriching content. It also limits how long minors under age 14 can use it40 minutes each day, only between 6 a.m. and 10 p.m. We are getting a more toxic version of TikTok. You may have at least a vague notion of how social media is diminishing your attention span, distracting you from meaningful relationships, or warping your worldview. This is intentional as part of TikToks cognitive warfare efforts. Thirdly, there is value in being able to perceive the world for what it actually is. China is notorious for censorship, and Im quite curious to see how Chinese RedNote users respond to content involving, say, Tiananmen Square or Chinas arbitrary detaining of Uyghur Muslims. If China will censor and manipulate its own people to this degree, imagine what theyll do to you. Care about the nation Theres a lot of f America going around these days, and I guess I get it. We live in a country united only by the vigilante slaying of a healthcare CEO. Trump, Palestine, school shootings, childcare costs, recession, Big Oil, military contractors, microplastics we didnt start the fi-yer! We have to remember that our country is not any of these things. This country is We The People. The everyday folks grinding it out day after day. Were getting up in the morning and going to work. Raising our kids. Paying bills. Finding small ways to enjoy life and not let it drive us insane. Sometimes voting feels like pissing in the wind, but even though the lobbyists and corporations have huge sway over our government, our government is accountable to us. We can openly shout them down and vote them out. The administrators of our government are still subject to the law, unlike members of the CCP. At the end of the day, were all in this big American boat. Whether youre proud to be here (like I am) or not, this is your boat. Jumping ship to RedNote would only exacerbate the schisms and grievances were all so tired of already. Because thats what the Chinese government wants. They dont have to have a precise aim, only to make us more confused and fractured. Dont fool yourself about China RedNotes Chinese name, Xiaohongshu, more directly translates to little red book. This name refers to Chinese dictator Mao Zedongs Little Red Book, which contains over 260 political aphorisms like political power grows out of the barrel of a gun. Styled after philosophical texts like those from Sun Tzu and Confucius, Little Red Book was key to builing a cult of personality around Mao and enacting his Cultural Revolution. His ministry of culture mandated every Chinese citizen own a copy and carry it with them. Mao would have loved RedNote, and TikTok, to be fair. Its safe to say that RedNotes name is more than a wink and a nod to the dictator, the personage of state power manifest. While many fresh American users are loving getting to know regular Chinese people, it isnt these people who are the threat. Its the fact that the Chinese government can use whatever data it wants for whatever purposes it wants. Thats just how their regime is set up. Most of what we complain about here in America, China is doing to a much greater degree, from the forced labor and even sterilization of Uyghurs to arresting monks in Tibet for their religious beliefs to silencing whistleblowers and journalists to harassing Taiwan with its military. That regime has been busy in regards to the U.S. over the past several years. Theyve infiltrated networks within Americas telecommunications, energy, water, and other infrastructure sectors. Theyve stolen our military technology. Theyve hacked U.S. government departments and targeted U.S. citizens who have been critical of China China is a clear and present danger. They arent playing nice, and we shouldnt play into their hands. No matter how much it might entertain us.
Category:
E-Commerce
Apple just hit another snag in its effort to find a foothold in the headset market targeting everyday users. The tech giant has reportedly canceled its project to build augmented reality glasses that could be paired with its devices. The project, code-named N107, was supposed to produce glasses that look normal but have added displays and would require connection to a Mac, Bloomberg reported. Yet the company reportedly struggled to produce the right tech at an attractive price point. Apple initially tried to get the glasses to pair with an iPhone, but ran into problems with battery life, Bloomberg reported. But the switch to the Mac, which has a bigger battery and faster processors, performed poorly among Apples executives, the report said. Pulling the project means Apple is likely falling even further behind its tech competitors. Meta, for example, unveiled its Orion AR glasses last fall. The Apple glasses were reportedly similar to Xreals One and Lenovos ThinkReality versions of AR glasses. At the same time, Apples Vision Pro headset has been slow to find adoption due to its $3,499 price tag. The company reportedly paused work on the Vision Pro 2 last summer in order to focus on creating a cheaper model.
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E-Commerce
On Thursday, President Donald Trump announced that he appointed Chris Rocheleau, a former senior aviation official, as acting head of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). Rocheleau will be handling the response to the deadly collision Wednesday night of an American Airlines plane with an Army Black Hawk helicopter that sent both plunging into the Potomac River. He will serve in the position until President Trump’s nominee is confirmed by the Senate. Michael Whitaker, the FAA’s most recent administratora 30-year aviation industry veteran, who was unanimously confirmed as FAA administrator by the Senate in October 2023resigned on January 20, as President Trump took office, following continued public criticism from Elon Musk, Trump’s close adviser, who called on Whitaker to “resign.” Musks’s issues with Whitaker were personal, having to do with fines the Whitaker-led FAA proposed on SpaceX, Musk’s space-technology company, over alleged government violations in two of its rocket launches. Rocheleau has more than two decades of experience working for the FAA, serving in multiple roles, including acting associate administrator for aviation safety; chief of staff; assistant administrator for policy, international affairs, and environment; executive director for international affairs; and director of the office of emergency operations and investigations. Most recently, he served as an executive at the National Business Aviation Association (NBAA). Chris is an outstanding leader who will be good for the FAA, good for aviation, and good for the country, especially at this challenging time, said NBAA president and CEO Ed Bolen in a statement. He has demonstrated excellence at every level in the government, military, and aviation industry. The American Airlines regional jet that collided with the Army helicopter had 67 people on board, including several figure skaters, among them 1994 world champions Evgenia Shishkova and Vadim Naumov. On Thursday, the president falsely blamed a diversity push at the FAA for the midair collision, even blaming Democrats for their policies. Tennessee Garvey, a pilot and the chair of the Organization of Black Aerospace Professionals, has pushed back against President Trumps comments. The plane wreckage is currently being housed in Hangar 7 at Reagan airport. A preliminary report into the investigation is expected to be released in a month.
Category:
E-Commerce
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