@kajakallas It's a good principle based on stated values.

If it is applied consistently, based on values.

And the largest, most repressive regimes aren't exempt. Like the Chinese dictatorship. Right?

Values not upheld consistently aren't really values at all.

(Pardon my slight sarcasm; I've been calling for *pro-democracy* trade policy since the days of the Tiananmen massacre... 🤷🏻‍♂️ )

@newsguyusa A genuinely helpful endorsement if one still needed such.

Whatever happened to that "Nobel bimbo" who just went and gave her hard-earned medal to that president of Murica?

The one that helped discredit the entirety of Venezuela's democratic movement?

Is she not going to be given any lucrative position anywhere?

@eff Having spent time in multiple "unfriendly" locations I appreciate privacy/anonymity *more* than the next guy, but we can't allow our kids or ourselves to be subjected to the type of industrial level manipulation now going on.

Likewise we shouldn't allow those industrialized manipulators to exist on the platforms we inhabit in the first place

If that wasn't enough, many/most platforms are owned, run and manipulated by nefarious/greedy owners sycophantic to a hostile non-democracy (you know which ones).

There is a technical fix, but one with a caveat (i.e. 'becoming of age' may reveal the fact).

Every citizen in a democracy could be issued with an anonymous digital token (multiple; one spun off the original for each use/platform/purpose so they can't be cross-referenced) that simply verifies this person qualifies to participate on, um, participating platform.

Maybe I'm a little naive and willing to trust my own government — left, right or centre — unlike the majority of humanity these days, but this current uncontrolled lab rat experiment is harming all of us and destroying discourse between verifiable human beings.

(I know some under-18s are way more mature than many nominal adults will ever be, but a year or few of additional mental peace has never harmed anyone like exposure to the industrialized manipulation would.)

@fergusryan Besides the issue being covered here there are so many extremely troubling issues and parties surrounding the whole tiktok phenomenom/platform I don't even know where to begin!

Owda's obviously been singled out for 'punishment' (having her soapbox yanked by the new regime), but the people I feel most forry for are those choosing to feed off such an obviously manipulated trough; originally run by the Chinese dictatorship and now the sociopathic white supremacist techbros...

I recall asking one part-time aussie influencer yesteryear if she had any misigivings about tiktok's pro-PRC bent and she replied the PRC's way less evil than the USA (of Biden admin era)... ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

@patrickleavy Considering France's sometimes obsessive drive for sovereignty in all things, them *re-hiring* Palantir to trifle through their innermost of inner sanctums (DGSI) is truly a flex for the ages. 🤯

Maybe Palantir has already been scrubbing all critical anglais coverage about its maga-techbro owners and corporate objectives so the French gov't folk depending on its 'intelligence' output don't even know what kind of entity they're dealing with.

On the... bright side should the far-right (Palantir allies!) take over France they'd have a great dystopian system to take advantage of.