watching the hearing was pretty much the worst thing for national security you can think of.

tiktok isnt a threat ... the american government being so incompetent it can't figure out wifi is absolutely going to kill us sooner than tiktok ever could.

even the dems, utter morons. you expect the conspiracy theory ridden GOP to be morons, but the only intelligent person in that room was shou. and it was so painfully obvious to everyone. what an utter disaster.

And yet we have new fervor to ban books. Yes, the Chinese is definitely our enemy and TikTok is good tool in their arsenal but closely followed by our very own book banners cum burners.

You know the U.S. is ripe for being taken over when Michelangelo's statue of David is banned. Whether through TiKTok or any other social media, injecting division into the national conversation will be as easy as, I don't know, breathing. We are screwed.

So yeah, individual liberty and all that.

Principal resigns after Florida students shown Michelangelo statue

By Antoinette Radford
BBC News

A principal of a Florida school has been forced to resign after a parent complained that sixth-grade students were exposed to pornography.

The complaint arose from a Renaissance art lesson where students were shown Michelangelo's statue of David.

The iconic statue is one of the most famous in Western history.

But one parent complained the material was pornographic and two others said they wanted to know about the class before it was taught.

The 5.17m (17ft) statue depicts an entirely naked David, the Biblical figure who kills the giant Goliath.

The lesson, given to 11 and 12-year-olds, also included references to Michelangelo's "Creation of Adam" painting and Botticelli's "Birth of Venus".

Principal Hope Carrasaquilla of Tallahassee Classical School said she resigned after she was given an ultimatum by the school board to resign or be fired.

Local media reported that Ms Carrasquilla did not know the reason she was asked to resign, but believed it was related to the complaints over the lesson.

They also said Ms Carrasquilla had been principal for less than one year.

In an interview with US outlet Slate, the chair of the school's board, Barney Bishop III, said that last year the principal sent a notice to parents warning them that students were going to see Michelangelo's David - but that this wasn't done this year. He called it an "egregious mistake" and said that "parents are entitled to know anytime their child is being taught a controversial topic and picture".

"We're not going to show the full statue of David to kindergartners. We're not going to show him to second graders. Showing the entire statue of David is appropriate at some age. We're going to figure out when that is," Mr Bishop said.

On Thursday, Florida's governor, Ron DeSantis, moved to expand a law that banned public schools from teaching sexual education and gender identity.

Teachers who violate the law face being suspended or losing their teaching licences.

The David was completed by Michelangelo between 1501 and 1504. It was instantly hailed as a masterpiece, with Renaissance artist Giorgio Vasari saying the David "surpassed" any statue that had ever existed before.

Queen Victoria gifted a copy of the David to the South Kensington museum - later the V&A - in 1857. When she first saw the cast, she was apparently so shocked by the nudity that a fig leaf was commissioned to cover up the genitalia.

The V&A's website says that the leaf was kept "in readiness for any royal visits, when it was hung on the figure using two strategically placed hooks."

Agreed, Shaun!

Except, ‘injecting division into the national conversation will be as easy as…breathing’.

We are already there, which I think is your point.

FFS! OK, some numbnuts parent is a moron, I'm OK with that. But the fact that the principal had to resign is farking ridiculous. Mr Bishop of the school board needs a swift kick to the nads, maybe a few.

The continuing PC and cancel culture sheiße is BS.

As someone in the security space I would not use any Chinese owned app, they are smart, have resources and play the long game.

That’s all I will say

Installing an "app" for a website is pure lunacy. They may ID you with an IP and whatever identifying info your phone/computer sends but that is the most you should give them. Use blocking tools like privacybadger and noscript for cross-scripting and allowing other sites to track you.

Facebook got busted for tracking users even when not on their website. Google had a 90% dominance on targeted advertising and even government websites don't function without it's spyware. I call it internet stalking by corporations which are people but it's all okay. People still use those sites even after being made aware, so great is the allure of social media and the ignorance.

I was flipping through google shorts most of last night to find the patterns.
-Most are stupid tricks or couples pranks, overlaid with a dozen hip hop songs to select from.
-A few feel good animal rescues.
-A few DEI public reaction videos alluding to who lets strangers approach them and deeply interact. Subliminal racist stuff.
-A few diamonds in the rough with real tips and tricks.
-Random things being made with overlay of random conversations.
-About 1/5th of the vids are ads for young women to buy starbucks from grubhub because it 'saves them so much time in the morning'. Sure. Waiting around for some sketchy dude to finally bring you expensive cold coffee. Brilliant.

I thought we had a long time member named turbofan, but that's clearly not ^this^ guy.

App and also limit the hardware that comes from them. Any hardware can have software embedded. I'm doubtful about my TV. I had planned to, but haven't routed the TV through a firewall that can block/log all outbound connections.

I think pretty much every website tries to track you and get as much data as possible from you. And websites can track you fairly easily by fingerprinting your browser. If they are able to learn 100 different bits of information about you through your browser, and those 100 pieces of information have anywhere from 2 to 100 different options, then there are a huge number of variations. And those variations may not be perfectly unique, but they are likely to be pretty close. And that information is fed to or bought from the folks that collect that information. The next thing you know you're getting targeted ads, videos, websites suggested to you every where you go.

So, instead of seeing all of the possibilities of the WWW, you're seeing the one little corner of it that they think makes you happy, and you may never seen the rest.

its like we needed a digital bill of rights ~15 years ago.