Republican Sen. Josh Hawley is calling for a TikTok ban.
This is a day after another Republican, Sen. Marco Rubio, published an OpEd in Fox News also pushing for a ban.
To be sure, these Republicans care very little about TikTok's surveillance of users.
Their problem is that, unlike Meta or Twitter, TikTok is not an American company.
Nevertheless, I personally think surveillance capitalism should be banned wholesale on all social networks.
I really hope that progressives turn off the lizard brain response of "TikTok is good because Republicans say it's bad."
No, TikTok is bad.
The enemy of your enemy isn't necessarily your friend.
Is their opposition based on nationalism, racism, and yellow peril? Probably.
Is TikTok still monitoring and tracking teenagers, feeding them unhealthy content based on "relevancy" algorithms, screwing with their mental health? Yes.
All surveillance capitalism should be banned.
The more thoughtful progressive response to the eventual TikTok ban is to say:
"Hey Republicans, you're right about TikTok. But let's go further than TikTok. Let's ban all surveillance, user tracking, and black box algorithms from ALL social media -- including with American-owned companies!
"And while we're at it, let's dismantle all Big Tech monopolies, especially the ones building walled gardens that lock users into their platforms!"
Chris Trottier
Nate Gaylinn