You make it sound like that's generally a negative thing, implying that the information being promoted by other countries is made equal and has some implicit right to be spread. But it's not, it's geopolitic information warfare.
So we get down to actual situation - TikTok is way too popular and not under reach nor control.
The hell will sooner freeze that me as an European will believe US government is not weaponizing data of all US companies it can get it hands on, and well, it can get hands on all data. That's decade old story at best.
For an European, this is really funny, fight for who can control general population more. Don't get me wrong, I consider all social networks a brain and societal cancer, but to claim one is weaponized and the other is not, pinky promise... Snowden, NSA, secret courts and rulings that can't be even made public, recording basically whole internet traffic for further analysis including this comment (maybe apart from youtube traffic). Discussion who is doing worse is then just an academic one, lets make an Excel spreadsheet and compare numbers.
I'm sure the US government is also weaponizing information. But the decision to ban TikTok while controlled by the CPP isn't done on moral grounds. It's based on pragmatism.
As a european, talking to any american, we notice you guys have levels of propaganda that are way way higher than what we get. And we do get propaganda.
The notion that without tiktok you'll now get anything "true" is laughable.
I think what you are saying could possibly be true, but is probably hard to quantify. Anecdotally, I have a friend living in the EU that claims the opposite of what you are, but I have no plans on taking a stance until I see some kind of proof.
Personally, I'm not too concerned with the propaganda factor, but of course I'm still affected whether I want to or not. I just don't feel it's a strong point.
What is really concerning though is the other points that a lot of commenters fail to bring up:
#1 - The ability for a foreign nation to streamline targeting an American with real time location data is one - for example, a high ranking official has the app or has an aide that uses the app. The high ranking official can then be targeted.
#2 - Another really good one is that China subsidizes TikTok content creators. This is a form of economic warfare against Americans and also a way to generate more growth and users, which ultimately strengthens the capabilities of #1.
There are more of course, but I have no intention on writing a dissertation. My point is that propaganda shouldn't be worried about as much as the risk to national security.
Lastly, I say all this having a great respect for people of China. They feel like one of the countries in the world that takes the "knowledge is power" saying seriously, rather than just using it as a punch line.
At the end of the day, either users are really in control for what they can or they cannot talk about or it's censored one way or another and thus not free.
Information war is complex and if we don't allow our foes to express their povs then all we're left is our own manipulated media. If we do allow it we might face a spread of a different kind of information.
I wish this was all solved by allowing everybody to spread whatever information and educating citizens since young age about raising a lot of doubt about anything they hear/see in the news/socials.
But again this is also complicated on a social media level especially with those auto feeder algorithms that will either push you controversial content because it makes views or just because you stumbled on few videos on the topic so it's gonna push you even further in the hole.
In any case there's no simple solution.
The issue with China is that our own information and misinformation cannot reach them either.
We allowed Russian state media for long on our platforms because they allowed our on theirs too. Reddit or YouTube or X were never banned there. But again 90% of Russians get informed by tv, and the minority that doesn't gets it on VK or other Russian social media.
jajko|1 year ago
The hell will sooner freeze that me as an European will believe US government is not weaponizing data of all US companies it can get it hands on, and well, it can get hands on all data. That's decade old story at best.
For an European, this is really funny, fight for who can control general population more. Don't get me wrong, I consider all social networks a brain and societal cancer, but to claim one is weaponized and the other is not, pinky promise... Snowden, NSA, secret courts and rulings that can't be even made public, recording basically whole internet traffic for further analysis including this comment (maybe apart from youtube traffic). Discussion who is doing worse is then just an academic one, lets make an Excel spreadsheet and compare numbers.
airstrike|1 year ago
LtWorf|1 year ago
The notion that without tiktok you'll now get anything "true" is laughable.
Shocka1|1 year ago
Personally, I'm not too concerned with the propaganda factor, but of course I'm still affected whether I want to or not. I just don't feel it's a strong point.
What is really concerning though is the other points that a lot of commenters fail to bring up:
#1 - The ability for a foreign nation to streamline targeting an American with real time location data is one - for example, a high ranking official has the app or has an aide that uses the app. The high ranking official can then be targeted.
#2 - Another really good one is that China subsidizes TikTok content creators. This is a form of economic warfare against Americans and also a way to generate more growth and users, which ultimately strengthens the capabilities of #1.
There are more of course, but I have no intention on writing a dissertation. My point is that propaganda shouldn't be worried about as much as the risk to national security.
Lastly, I say all this having a great respect for people of China. They feel like one of the countries in the world that takes the "knowledge is power" saying seriously, rather than just using it as a punch line.
epolanski|1 year ago
The problem has no easy solution.
At the end of the day, either users are really in control for what they can or they cannot talk about or it's censored one way or another and thus not free.
Information war is complex and if we don't allow our foes to express their povs then all we're left is our own manipulated media. If we do allow it we might face a spread of a different kind of information.
I wish this was all solved by allowing everybody to spread whatever information and educating citizens since young age about raising a lot of doubt about anything they hear/see in the news/socials.
But again this is also complicated on a social media level especially with those auto feeder algorithms that will either push you controversial content because it makes views or just because you stumbled on few videos on the topic so it's gonna push you even further in the hole.
In any case there's no simple solution.
The issue with China is that our own information and misinformation cannot reach them either.
We allowed Russian state media for long on our platforms because they allowed our on theirs too. Reddit or YouTube or X were never banned there. But again 90% of Russians get informed by tv, and the minority that doesn't gets it on VK or other Russian social media.
LtWorf|1 year ago
Is it freedom of speech if there is no freedom of hearing?