What Woz Said

Apple cofounder Steve Wozniak has weighed in on the bill in Congress to ban TikTok.

He's calling bullsh%$, noting the obvious, that while TikTok may be a privacy hellscape, it is no worse, and in some cases arguably better, than the criminal enterprise formerly known as Facebook™, Ecch (Twitter), Google, Amazon, Apple, or any one of a dozen or so American companies.

It should be noted that at the time of my writing this, there have been no classified document leaks on TikTok, as opposed to, for example, War Thunder discussion boards.

Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak has criticized the US government's targeting of TikTok, saying it is hypocritical to single out one social media platform for tracking users and not apply the same rule to all.

In an interview with news channel CNN, Woz was asked about Apple's so-called "walled garden" approach to protecting users, and in response he said he was glad for the protection that he gets, and that Apple does a better job in this respect than other companies.

"And tracking you - tracking you is questionable. But my gosh, look at what we're accusing TikTok of, and then go look at Facebook and Google and that's how they make their businesses," he added. "I mean, Facebook was a great idea. But then they make all their money just by tracking you and advertising, and Apple doesn't really do that so much."

"That much," huh?  That word is getting an awfully hard workout here. (Not a fan of Apple.  The only reason that Tim Cook is not the biggest psychopath to have run Apple is because his immediate predecessor was Steve Jobs.)

Earlier this month, the US Congress passed the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act, which aims to force TikTok's Chinese owner ByteDance to either sell off its US-based biz or face being banned from operating in the country.

"I don't understand it, I don't see why," commented Woz. "What are we saying? We're saying 'Oh, you might be tracked by the Chinese.' Well, they learned it from us."

The hypocrisy behind the bill is stunning, of course, but that hypocrisy is at the core of what the United States calls the, "Rules based order," which boils down to, "The US makes the rules, bitches."

(Full disclosure, I do not have a TikTok account, and avoid using it in my blog, because I cannot figure out how to stop it from auto-playing videos.)