Again, I don’t understand why we have to keep going back to a known problem and try to use it to justify a different concern. The topic is China’s TikTok.
Because the other problem is worse and more of a concern? Because it shows our politicians are either hypocrites, have a different agenda, or both? Because it tricks people into thinking their enemies are abroad rather than the rich at home, preventing international solidarity and underselling the problem of the influence of our own home grown businesses, billionaires, lobbyists? Because it strengthens their power by preventing another alternative avenue of information away from their censorship? Because usually the first solution takes away momentum from the problem, preventing a better solution for a longer period of time?
“They’re teenagers and old people saying they spend their whole day on the app and we can’t take it away.”
But did all those calls actually result in anything? No, Tik Tok is still being banned. Did the things I talk about result in anything, the influence of American companies? Yes, it’s increased and strengthened conservatives, the Citizens United scandal helped lead to Trump the first time, they’ve suppressed dissent against Israel, helping to justify genocide, normalized racist, homophobic, and transphobic rhetoric online in a more mainstream space (X), etc. These are hard facts, not conspiracy theories dreamed up about what China could do.
Not to mention that asking users to save their app is something literally any app run by a business would do. They would do that even if they were owned by an American company and were getting threatened by a ban. Like I said, no worse than the SOPA blackout by companies like Google and Reddit where they asked users to contact representatives. Meanwhile, American companies Uber and Lyft did huge lobbying efforts and spent record breaking amounts of money making life harder for gig workers in California with Prop 22, for example, and did a huge advertising campaign lying about the effects of it.
Let me ask another way: Do you really, in your heart, truly believe that they’re going to circle back to dealing with the privacy of American companies after Tik Tok? Be honest. This conversation will be permanently tabled once these Tik Tok articles are out of the zeitgeist.