[yyuugg]

This ban has always felt so silly. If it's privacy and data harvesting as a concern, don't a million apps do that? If it's anti-China sentiment, why TikTok and not a million other things? If it's about protecting elections and propaganda, why not X and Meta and YouTube?

It's so weirdly targeted to me. Why TikTok only?

[swatcoder]

> If it's about protecting elections and propaganda, why not X and Meta and YouTube?

Because the government is not threatened by X, Meta, or YouTube. In many ways, it exists in their pocket. There's not a lot of looming dissonance between what those parties are interested in seeing happen and what the modern federal government (as run by either party) is pursuing, and at this point, those each provide far more value as an allied propaganda arm than as a hostile propaganda risk.

But China and the US have directly competing interests in many places around the world, and the radical changes that both countries have undergone in the last 80 years have set the stage of a fresh contest of power. Obviously, both parties would like to navigate that contest in the best position possible. Allowing your anticipated opponent access to unmediated, private communications with hundreds of millions of citizens in an already vulnerable democracy is not a great position to be in during that contest.

[azinman2]

It’s very simple, the entire young generation lives on TT. It’s where they get all of their information. It’s owned by a foreign adversary. We already have laws against foreign owned media for radio and TV, why would this be any different given this is TV in 2024?

I’ve used both reels and TT. I’ve only ever gotten lots of pro-China content on TT.

[thiagoharry]

So, you agree that most countries should ban US social media, as most of them probably have laws against foreign owned TV and radio?

[Uhhrrr]

I tried TikTok and never saw much political content at all. The algorithm gave me little dances and bad cooking. I finally got it to ditch the bad cooking and show me some interesting pseudo 70s horror AI videos. But then things kept repeating and I bailed.

How did you manage to get Chinese propaganda?

[qingcharles]

I've used TikTok extensively for the last three years and never found any pro-China content at all.

[banku_brougham]

Speak for yourself, I dont have any 'foreign adversaries,' really that sounds like cheap talking points and nothing to do with my interests as an american.

[wvenable]

Data harvesting is a-ok. Propaganda by Americans to Americans is protected by the first amendment. But a foreign state harvesting data and applying influence is more straight forward.

Look at the proposed solution: Just sell TikTok to someone else who isn't China.

[logicchains]

Because the AIPAC lobby explicitly called TikTok out for exposing young Americans to footage of the Gaza genocide (causing support for Israel among US youth to reach and all-time low), and pushed for the ban. The US politicians who initially pushed it had received hundreds of thousands of dollars of donations from AIPAC.

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/08/business/tiktok-accusatio...

[banku_brougham]

Its a straight line, openly conceived.

[sethammons]

because tiktok was doing FB stuff better and FB got scared and lobbied. I think that about sums it up.

[quickthrowman]

X, Meta, and YouTube are not indirectly controlled by the Chinese Communist Party. The end.

[yyuugg]

So... nationalism? We like our surveillance state and demonize their surveillance state?

[banku_brougham]

oh, but give a chance for rebuttal: I find the US propaganda simplistic and violent. I much prefer this Chinese propaganda, as an american consumer.