I’m not gonna suggest that it’s right that US companies often evade government scrutiny and actin, but I also don’t think it’s hypocritical for a country to be interested in protecting itself from other countries. That’s just national interest. We need protections within the country too, but that’s not the same conversation.

And tbh, the meme is pretty on point because a family may treat each other poorly often, but they are much less accepting of an outside party doing the same as it can be seen as a risk to the group at large.

people seem to glaze over the fact that China is at odds with the United States politically, the ban has little to do with protecting people’s privacy and more to do with preventing another country from having such an influential tool ready at their fingertips.

Also I know it’s the whole “you are not immune to propoganda” meme but look at the reactions to this bill online. If this isn’t proof enough that ByteDance has the tools and ability to push an agenda through their app idk what is, and during an election year when the U.S. has already had enough problems with foreign interference. If we cannot trust ByteDance not to retaliate against the U.S. when profits are on the line, they probably shouldn’t be trusted with so much control on what our citizens are watching and hearing.

From the outside looking in, I’m sorry but the opposite is evident. How fast older Americans are rushing to setup their own firewall, making one thing illegal in America is crazy.

We’re heading towards a world where just like China blocks Facebook, America has its own firewall to block tiktok. Two sides of the same coin.

China blocks a lot, lot more than just Facebook, so to try and conflate the two is disingenuous at best and trolling at worst. I’m also very skeptical of this idea that TikTok is the only platform where organization can occur. Maybe this pushes them to the Fediverse, or to more established methods like Telegram, but it’s not going to be this great silencing of young voices.

I’d also like to point out that many of the media sources that are picking up on this as a horrible ban are owned by people who like to sow division like Murdoch, or are affiliated with ByteDance. Checking for unbiased sources is pretty big on a topic like this, and I would absolutely ignore anything posted on TikTok at a minimum.

We are heading towards a world where Americans are prevented from accessing a social media that the rest of the world can access. This is undeniable. It’s disingenuous to suggest that this is not like the Chinese ban on foreign social media’s.

Maybe I just don’t want a platform controlled by a country actively committing a genocide to be able to shape the narrative around another genocide? Maybe I don’t want to offer a country that kidnaps and retrains dissidents access to data they can use to target foreign dissidents? Maybe I think that a power that actively targets American institutions with cyberattacks on a regular basis shouldn’t also have access to the minds of millions of Americans via an algorithm that is seriously, dangerously addictive?

Like in what world are people seriously coming to the defense of China? What, we suddenly trust a dictatorship that openly and brazenly wants to destabilize Western nations? We trust that ByteDance is very independent and totally cool and doesn’t have to support the CCP at gunpoint at all?

I think people are massively understating the power that control over these platforms offers, and massively overstating the impact they have. Massive protests were successfully organized way before TikTok, they will continue to be organized after it is gone. This isn’t the herald of the end of social media in the U.S. If anything, perhaps a Fediverse alternative could spring up to fill the gap, which is by far the best platform for organizing.