TikTok Congressional Hearing: The Good, The Bad and The Ugly (Part 3/3)

Now we go onto the ugly! Not literally ugly, even though some of these faces won't be winning beauty pageants anytime soon. No, this section is reserved for the truly astounding levels of either ignorance or bad behavior.

The Ugly

Kat Cammack

Kat Cammack of Florida is the quintessential occupant of this section. There have been other members of Congress, such as Richard Hudson, that were, in my opinion, unfairly raked over the coals of Social Media. Cammack was not one of them. She was belligerent beyond the point of necessity, interrupted constantly, and as she kept talking, I wondered - who the fuck let this Karen in here?!

There was also this segment where she threw out accusations and as Chew Shou Zi tried to answer, she kept talking over him, answering her own question with "Yes. Yes. Yes." I detest these theatrics, and Cammack really piled it on.

"You damn well know that you cannot protect the data and security of this committee or the 150 million users of your app because it is an extension of the CCP."

Also, and I realize that this is completely subjective, her face and constant finger-wagging annoyed me. This lady did not need to be here. She needed to be in a McDonalds somewhere chomping on a cheeseburger and demanding to see the Manager.

Gus Bilirakis

Gus Bilirakis of Florida (what is it with Florida?!) is another deserved inclusion in this section. He spoke with a slur and I was almost convinced that he was going to slip into a coma at some point. Like some others before him, he kept droning on and insisting on "Yes or no?" even as Chew Shou Zi tried to give detailed answers. Not only was this guy insanely annoying, he was useless, which is arguably worse, and came across as supremely sanctimonious as he detailed the case of Chase Naska, a teen suicide.

"Your technology is literally leading to death."

No Mr Bilirakis, your school shootings are doing a much better job of that.

Bill Johnson

Bill Johnson of Ohio was a surprise inclusion into this category. The moment he introduced himself as an I.T professional, I was pre-conditioned to receive him positively. Unfortunately, he did himself absolutely no favors with his particular brand of douchebaggery.

"You've been evasive in many of your answers. I'm going to talk to you in some language that maybe you'll better understand - ones and zeros."

Like wow, Johnson really took the term "condescending asshole" to a whole new level there. Chew only appears evasive because your fellow idiots are asking for "yes or no" answers when he's trying to give detailed ones. Something which I'm now sure is deliberate. Well played.

"Here's the truth. In a million lines of code, the smallest shift from a zero to a one on just one of thousands of versions of TikTok on the market, will unlock explicit CCP censorship and access to American data."

Here's the truth. Johnson is a know-nothing masquerading as a know-something, and I'm sick of his bullshit.

Did this guy say he'd been in I.T most of his life? How in the ever-loving fuck does a shift from a zero to a one, accomplish that much? That could certainly work if it was just a configuration object, but the code to do what he claims, would actually have to exist in the first place. This guy talked about code like he'd never written a line of code in his life. Seeing as it's a Federal crime to lie during Congress (or so they kept reminding us ad nauseam) he could be one of those guys who think they know shit just because they own a tech company or two, and have never been in the metaphorical foxholes like us grunts. I've certainly encountered plenty of those.

"...can byte code be manipulated? We’ve talked a lot about source code. What about the byte code? The ones and zeros that actually execute on the device?"

Even assuming this was true, what could be gained from asking this? Would the CEO of a tech company necessarily know this? The CEO, not the CTO. And even if he could answer the question, how many others at the hearing or the audience would understand? This was performative politics, nothing more. At some point Chew was even seen smiling as if to say, wow, this guy. I think Bill Johnson would benefit greatly from observing Jay Obernolte from the "Good" section. Take note, Mr Johnson - this is what a real tech professional should sound like. This is what you might sound like with some genuine expertise and a lot less hot air.

Earl Carter

I wanted badly to like Earl "Buddy" Carter of Georgia. With his thick accent and his jovial demeanor, he exuded a certain Southern charm. But to be fair to the others, he unequivocally belongs in this section due to some of the astonishingly clownish things he uttered.

For example, he was questioning why the American version of TikTok had dangerous challenges while Douyin didn't.

"Do you know whether they have these kind of challenges like this over in China? Because it's my understanding they don't,"

And when Chew said no, he wasn't sure if Douyin did, Carter went:

"And, and you don't look at any of your other competitors or look at anything similar to yours."

Chew had already mentioned that Douyin is used in China, and TikTok is used outside of China. They're not competitors because they have to exist mutually exclusive of each other. They do not operate in the same market segment. This would be like calling Weibo a competitor of Facebook. There was no reason for Chew to be checking Douyin out at all. Was Carter taking the piss, or just dense?

There's also that back-and-forth where Carter badgered Chew about pupil dilation or some shit like that, but at that point, I was convinced I was listening to the ravings of someone either drunk or stupid. Perhaps both.

Chew was starting to explain how TikTok determines the age of their users.

"We rely on age gating as our key age assurance. Age gating, which is when you ask the user what age they are, we have also developed some tools where we look at the public profile to go through the videos that the post..."

And Carter was like,

"Well that's creepy. Tell me more about that."

What's creepy about going through a public profile?! Can I suggest that Carter hire an entire audit team to check the stuff that comes out of his mouth? Because this guy is a bona fide liability.

Entertainment value aside, Carter was a complete waste of the time spent listening to his drivel. I'm firmly convinced that while he's a likeable guy due to the informal and buddy-buddy way he talks, someone like him does not belong in Congress, for the same reasons someone like me does not.

Debbie Lasko

Around the four hour mark of this hearing, we got some more posturing from Debbie Lesko of Arizona.

"Mr. Chew, do you agree that the Chinese government has persecuted the Uyghur population?"

I'm frankly perplexed that anyone thought this was anything but irrelevant. Would it have mattered if Chew had said yes? Would it have mattered if he said he believes in Santa Claus or Jesus Christ? I know what Lesko was trying to prove, but Chew was not going talk shit about any government, never mind the Chinese government. Hell, there was so much shit he could have said about the USA government (and a lot of it would absolutely be relevant in this hearing), but he held back!

Aside from that, Lesko also performed the tactic that many of these politicians seem so fond of - interrupting, talking over, and badgering. So performative. So puerile. In other words, she earned her place in this section.

August Pfluger

I have no words to describe what a tool August Pfluger of Texas  was during his time.

"Does TikTok support genocide?"

Like, this has to take the prize for useless questions. Aside from that, he was argumentative and full-on spoiling for a fight. And at the end of the exchange, he had this to say in reference to Project Texas.

"Please rename your project. Texas is not the appropriate name. We stand for freedom and transparency, and we don't want your project."

Guy probably thought this was a mic drop. If I could roll my eyes any harder, they'd be doing a Neymar Jr. I even saw Chew Shou Zi crack a smile at this. Pfluger, if you're under the impression that you're witty, no, you really aren't. If it's any consolation, you are pretty comical. Unfortunately for you, American Congress is not the place. Or maybe it is, I can't tell anymore at this point.

Morgan Griffith

Morgan Griffith of Virginia. Whoo boy, this guy. Originally, I was feeling charitable and put him in the "Bad" section, but as his five minutes wore on, his theatrics got worse and worse. He kept badgering Chew Shou Zi to tell him the political affiliations of his employees.

Sir, I thought it was illegal to ask your employees what their political affiliations are, being that this is the USA, the land of the free and all that. Dude was grasping so hard, it was just sad.

Will TikTok be banned?

That's not a question I feel equipped to answer. A better question would be: do I give a shit? No, I really don't.

TikTok is installed on my phone, yes. But I can't remember the last time I used it, much less surrendered an entire hour to it. Sure, a whole bunch of teenagers will lose their favorite toy, and several people who currently make a living off it will have to go out and (gasp!) get jobs. Would it really be so terrible if there were a few (or several) less Social Media influencers in this world? Not from where I sit.

So, no. I really have very little skin in the game, and thus I'm answering this as objectively as humanly possible.

Let's face it - if Tiktok does get banned, people are not going to stop being trash on Social Media. They're just going to flock to other platforms and be trash there. Maybe that was the entire point of the exercise, eh? I mean, if the concern was data getting mined and sold, the problem would be a lot bigger than TikTok. If the concern was objectionable content, there's a whole lot of it elsewhere as well. So maybe the real concern is that American-made Social Media platforms just don't want the competition.

Is it possible that China really is using TikTok as a tool for espionage or propaganda? Sure, anything's possible. I may even go so far as to say it's probable. Is a TikTok ban going to help? I'd say that ship has sailed, wouldn't you?

Finally...

Firstly, some acknowledgements are in order. I referenced this link extensively so I could copy-paste rather than manually transcribe. Though there were parts where the transcript was off, it's nevertheless saved me a lot of labor and it's much appreciated.

Secondly, I understand that my comments may be hurtful and sound unprofessional. I suspect the American politicians who got roasted here will sleep just fine; I'm neither an American citizen and have no voting rights, nor do I have millions of Followers that I can influence in the USA. In other words, like a lot of people, I'm a complete non-entity with an opinion, or several.

Lastly, this was my first time watching American Congress. Not impressed.

What a Shoudown!
T___T

Trail of the Catfish (Part 2/2)

It would be a full three weeks before I got back to this issue. Life had gotten very busy at the office. I was drowning in the workload. When I finally caught a break, my friend sent me a WhatsApp message to excitedly say that his girlfriend was due in Singapore in six hours. I was relieved to see that - at least there was going to be some live interaction now.

At the end of the workday, however, things had changed. He despondently told me that there had been a last-minute change in plans, and she was not coming over after all. I can't say I was too surprised at this news.

One week later...

There was more news. I learned that she had completely disappeared. According to my friend, she was no longer communicating with him.

Up in smoke.

My friend told me that the site he had been investing in, had suddenly gone down, and with it, his outlay of twenty thousand dollars. Well, I reasoned, at least he had been withdrawing his earnings regularly, right? Erm, right?!

Nope!

According to him, that would have made less sense than leaving the money there to continue rolling for him. So he'd lost everything in there, and when he tried asking for his ten thousand dollars back from his girlfriend to mitigate his losses (this really made me roll my eyes, by the way), she ghosted him.

With that in mind, my follow-up question was: if he hadn't been withdrawing the money from the site, where did he get the money to send to his girlfriend?

The answer made me facepalm really hard. He had taken the money from his own bank account. Because he had assumed that he would be able to withdraw the money from that site any time he wanted.

Wow. The sheer fucking recklessness of this made me see stars. How had that seemed like a good idea? Now he had not only lost the ten thousand he had sent, he had also lost the twenty thousand that was his initial investment. Thirty thousand in all - which, coincidentally, was about the sum I laid down as a deposit when I bought my own place back in 2014.

Evidence

Despite all that, my friend was adamant that what they had shared was real. That she had been real. And he would listen to nothing else.

That was when something clicked inside me. I took the initial image he had shown me and did a Google image search for this. What I found made my blood run cold. The image turned up several similar images of the same woman. It led me to a Weibo blog. This blog belonged to an influencer from Zhejiang in China. As a matter of fact, the very image she had sent him, was a duplicate of the one found on the blog, with one small change: the Weibo icon had been snipped off.

Before and after.

His girlfriend was a famous local celebrity in Zhejiang, who was already engaged to another man.

When I confronted my friend about this, he told me he wanted to drop the matter entirely, and asked me to stop talking about this to him. And, feeling that my point had been made, I saw no need to belabor it.

Lessons this taught me

Just because someone is older than me, does not make them smarter. Quite the contrary, they can be easier to fool precisely because they think they are immune to being taken for a ride. When considering if someone is capable of prudent decision-making, it helps to consider the context. My friend wasn't stupid normally, but in matters of romance, he has had woefully little experience. This clouded his judgment, and ultimately turned out to be his downfall.

Do I feel guilty for my lack of action? No. Undeniably, I prioritized my own shit over that of my friend's, precisely because I trusted him to be able to handle his own shit. We've all got our crosses to bear.

But I do feel ashamed. As a tech professional, doing that Google image search should have been the first thing that came to me - not almost a month after the fact.

And I feel embarrassed. Some catfisher in China probably now thinks that Singaporean men are so goddamn easy to fool - using pictures of a local celebrity, no less! All she (or maybe even he) really needed to do was sweet-talk some idiot on WeChat for a few months, with a five-digit figure payoff to show for it. Now, if only earning honest money were that easy.

(cat)fishing in troubled waters!
T___T

Tough Times Ahead For Huawei?

Everyone's talking about it - everyone with a mobile phone and access to the Internet, that is.

A couple days ago, Google stunned the world by announcing that it was blocking Huawei's access to Google Play and Android updates. This was in response to the USA sanctions imposed on China trade as part of the US-China Trade War. Huawei's problems were compounded when suppliers such as Infineon Technologies and Qualcomm announced a halt to shipments to Huawei until they could figure out if said business arrangements were in violation of US Trade Law.

Is Huawei in trouble?

Is Huawei in trouble? The China tech company certainly appears to be in dire straits. After all, without suppliers, how do parts for devices get assembled? Without access to user technology such as apps, how will users use Huawei phones at all?

It would be premature to write Huawei off at this point in time. If it were any other company in any other country, maybe. But this is China, and China has its own ecosystem of apps, and more importantly, a large enough domestic market to support it. In fact, it's this very market that companies such as Facebook and Google wanted to tap back then, but failed.

Sure, Huawei phones won't be able to use Gmail. But the Chinese use QQ. True, no Google search. But the Chinese use Baidu. Getting the idea yet, or am I going to have to trot out the hundred and one alternatives for the apps that the Chinese are not going to miss? This situation really affects non-Chinese Huawei users the most... and all I can say is, tough titty, folks.

The USA may just have miscalculated, though. With a strong domestic market and their own technology, there is a distinct possibility that Huawei being forced to get creative could result in them digging deep and emerging from this with stronger, superior tech. Undoubtedly, it'll take time. But again, this is China. They've been around like, forever. They've got nothing but time.

Unfair practices?

People are going on and on about unfair practices on the part of the USA, and others are retaliating with retorts that China started it by banning Google and Facebook a while back.

First of all, China did not ban Google. Not deliberately, anyway. By default, all external parties are banned unless they adhere to China's policy of censorship. Not that I like censorship, but China's been completely consistent here. Comply, or fuck off. Google opted for the latter, because those restrictions went against the freedom of information it stands for. One could, of course, make a case for China eliminating competition for search engines and Social Media such as Baidu and Weibo, but on the surface at least, China's position is pretty legitimate.

Secondly, it's a Trade War, children. There's nothing fair or unfair about it. It is what it is.

Are you Team China or Team USA?

Personally, I couldn't give a monkey's left nut. Why do I have to choose a side? I'm a consumer. I'm on the consumer's side. And if this results in Huawei blossoming in its independence and churning out a new generation of devices that will break the Android and iOS stranglehold on global markets today, all the better. Tech wins.

As to who wins this Trade War, your guess is as good as mine. I think China and USA severely underestimate each other.

China has weathered many a storm over millennia, and this latest thing is merely a blip in a long history full of violence and turmoil. It's really difficult to see the Chinese breaking a sweat over this. They may seem arbitrary and inflexible, but damn if they don't know how to take a beating.

The USA may seem complacent and smug, but remember you're dealing with the spirit that manufactured the nuclear bomb, and even used a couple to end World War Two.

Looks like it's their wei or the highwei! (hur hur)
T___T