Our government goes after the gay hookup app Grindr as a national security threat. Discuss. https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/28/us/politics/grindr-china-national-security.html
Everyone knows that homosexuals are an easy mark for communists. Just ask the esteemed Senator McCarthy.
The Chinese are colluding with gays. Hmmmm, who would have thought. Do you swipe left or swipe right?
I've never seen the app, but isn't it right unless they're hot? Or is it the other way 'round? I have no clue. I'm an old fart.
Honestly I think they have a point albeit a small one. Now if those in the closet would just get the fuck out it wouldn't matter.
Yep that is 100% the concern on that or any other social site where info could be obtained and linked to someone trying to hide it. I got a briefing decades ago saying being gay was fine as long as you were open about it, no black mail risk. This has nothing to do with being homosexual, the same logic would be applied to "I love goats the hookup" the chinese would love to have that user list to blackmail far more than being gay.
Sorry man, as much as it pains me to say it the .gov is right. China isn’t our friend and will use access to any technology or platform it has to extort us. They also rightfully blocked Huawei from buying T-Mobile or one of the other big cell carriers, so this is nothing new. If China has a gay hookup app, I promise the CIA has probably already hacked it and is using the info to blackmail and control prominent Chinese. Which they should do, that’s the game. The Chinamen would have to be nuts to let a US company control something like that. Not that the Commies are approving of the gays. Hopefully the .gov applies this to other social platforms too. I’m sure the Chinese have already hacked that thing and have all the user data and dick pics, but at least they have to work for it and we don’t just hand the sneaky slant eyed bastards the keys.
Everything is right if you’re hot though, isn’t it? The world is just plain easier when you’re beautiful.
FYI: The app was created by an American business, and was sold to a China-based conglomerate a few years back. I pretty much agree. Assuming the reasoning is solid for a moment, then I have a further question: So why do we allow Chinese nationals/companies to buy American companies? There are a lot more areas where Chinese companies are buying American technology and companies, or able to collect personally identifiable data from/on Americans. Why?
The simple answer as to why the policy is incoherent? It’s the government. Consistency is not their strong point. Grindr is just an easy target to regulate in this manner because it’s specifically for gays. Facebook and lesser social media sites should absolutely be scrutinized if foreign companies make large investments, and a consistent standard should be applied. If an Alibaba-Facebook merger should ever happen I’d think that would be blocked. Hopefully lesser events are scrutinized also. There’s also a compelling state interest to force these organizations to abide by some kind of data security standard. Hacking is probably a bigger concern than large investments, which can be blocked. Chinese cyber warfare teams probably already know every user of Grindr.
Ok, but then you can't have it both ways. Unregulated capitalism - will destroy any sort of governmental organization, and replace it with the oligarchs. (kind of like Feudalism). Well regulated capitalism - the government can set rules capitalism has to live within. Which will it be?