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!"

The cold reality is that TikTok will be banned.

I've seen this play out with other Chinese companies. Perfect example is Huawei.

First, the US intelligence community raises alarms about security.

Then branches of the US government start to ban the tech made by these Chinese companies.

Finally, there's a wholesale ban of the tech being sold to or used by consumers.

Regarding TikTok, this is yet another weakness of Big Tech. What happens should it be banned?

Many folks are saying, "We need to build a federated TikTok clone!"

That can't exactly happen because TikTok's *reason* to exist is surveillance. Its algorithms work because it watches everything you do, and thus collects data on you.

However, what we need to do is build federated platforms for audio and video.

Some already exist, but they're works in progress.

Regardless, we need more.

@atomicpoet I really think the conversation needs to start from: who are the customers and what problems do they have that need solving? For example:

1) content creators probably (this is off-the-cuff) want a platform that allows them to easily create and distribute to a fan base they can build
2) consumers probably want to be entertained, discover, follow those they like, feel included in a groups or movements, etc.
3) both groups probably want to limit how their data is used
4) whoever is funding wants what? (Different if a company, non-profit, federation)

With user research, which very likely exists out there, a product can be designed and justified. I’d not want to start from the assumption that a clone of TikTok is the answer