>China and other countries do far worse to us than just requiring local ownership of businesses; and if they feel that is in their national interest, why can’t we return the favor when we feel it’s in our interest?
This is bigger than China for a lot of people. TikTok has given an alternative voice to groups typically marginalized on pro-Western platforms. We typically see hypocrisy from the West when it comes to Israel and current times are no different. Tiktok has allowed nearly more access to whatever footage is capable of sneaking out of the warzone whereas Meta platforms tend to suppress. (ex: they recently auto-defaulted a restriction on political content without informing their users).
TikTok amplifies whatever is in China's interest to amplify. Today, it happens to be voices opposed to Israel. Tomorrow, it could easily be the opposite. The goal is to generate geopolitical chaos to veil other actions (Taiwan, South China sea, Chinese migrant injections into Panama...).
A society's strength comes from its unity of will and resolve. Social media can be used to attack that unity... and has, not just by China.
I dont know that I would be making that claim about other platforms - there is something unique, pervasive and opaque about TikTok and how they try to drive engagement.
Yes, and when our government does it, we can hold them accountable. When an adversarial foreign power does it we cannot. Is that a difficult concept for you?
Yes, we will try hard to equate US government and China government. The 2 governments are so fungible and have equivalent due process for everything, especially for US citizens and citizens in other countries with border disputes. lol I can't even.
If Biden wants instagram to show you pictures of ponies, the best he can do is go to congress and get funding to run an ad campaign on instagram to show people ponies.
If Xi wants to show you ponies, you'll see them all over tiktok tomorow.
The US government has pressured various private orgs since forever to do stuff. Lots of stories about helping, refusals, court cases, retaliation. It's not much different than what goes on daily in the business world. Everyone will try to use their power to get their way.
However, this is contrary to China, who has never really pressured any Chinese organization to do anything. This is because they don't need to use pressure. They can just do it. Because there is no concept of "private organization" in China. The state has all the power.
It's so tellingly naive when people try to equivocate the US to China.
"We were under pressure from the administration and others to do more. We shouldn't have done it."
Also:
The 5th Circuit panel found that the White House coerced the platforms through “intimidating messages and threats of adverse consequences” and commandeered the decision-making processes of social media companies, particularly in handling pandemic-related and 2020 election posts.
All social media with attention management may be weaponized and has generally proven to be unhealthy for society. TikTok happens to be actively worse for a number of reasons, one of them being that it is designed to be so.
Israel can generate chaos on its own quite well, thank you.
About one half (!) of all UNGA emergency special sessions are about its conflicts, for crying out loud. :) This nothingcountry of <10 million people entertains the whole UN for the last 80 years or so almost constantly.
The world has grown by 4 billion people during that time, lol. Most of that time social media did not even exist.
Why not both? As it stands X platform is run by a pathological liar that has cozied up to the ADL to get the activist Pro-Israel community off his back. Many users many not prefer to use that platform because of these issues. The more options for people the better. What people seem to be forgetting is that TikTok is not the only market player. To single them out is absurd in this context.
Saying the word "cis" is enough to catch a ban on Twitter. Somehow in America, uncensored only means that far right white supremacists can say n**er freely.
>TikTok has given an alternative voice to groups typically marginalized on pro-Western platforms
This has to be substantiated, because it seems blatantly absurd on its face. Are you saying TikTok is an anti-western platform? That, in and of itself, justifies the divestment, considering the owner, no? Furthermore, what "pro-western" platforms are you talking about? I haven't seen anything from TikTok that wouldn't fly on discord or reddit, for example.
>I haven't seen anything from TikTok that wouldn't fly on discord or reddit, for example.
You only need to compare TikTok to it's US rival Reels. A majority of the pro-palestine is suppressed on Reels. The loss of TikTok is the destruction of Americans to access content that isn't filtered through US hegemony.
> The loss of TikTok is the destruction of Americans to access content that isn't filtered through US hegemony.
Meta's arcane moderation decisions apply to other platforms than their own? Go to reddit, to youtube, or to twitter, and you can find the most vile, unfiltered opinions on Israel and Palestine known to man.
Americans aren't missing out on any content at all. The only thing that will be destroyed is China's fast lane to American eyes.
Since the "alt-right pipeline" days and subsequent adpocalypse, YouTube has become an incredibly milquetoast platform. Twitter is no different than Meta when it comes to moderation, however instead of being "liberal american media", its just "conservative american media". While Meta censors you for being too far right, Twitter censors you for being too far left.
That said, my point isn't that "I can't watch pro-palestine content". TikTok presents the first major news platform used by Americans that wasn't created for Americans. For all the whining about how $social_media_platform doesn't offer diverse view points, that goes out the window when the owner isn't American.
I don't believe that China is better than America. I personally don't think it's a good thing that the US can just decide ban any content platform that isn't controlled by a US interest. I don't think it's good for the country and I think the security issues are overblown - any realistic security issue you can have with foreign interference, Meta has already committed and any legislation that does not address this just means the legislation doesn't really give a shit about security.
I don't think any Chinese viewpoint is inherently good, but the fact that millions of Americans cannot view content from a diversity of platforms is a problem.
The Israel/Palestine conflict is routinely at the top of massive subs like /r/news and /r/worldnews, two subreddits with diametrically opposed views on the conflict.
So what you're saying is those who control the feed algo have all the power and you want China to control the feed algo for a popular US app. Sounds smart /s
US wants to control the feed algo. TikTok said no. US wants TikTok sold to someone who will.
So far, China doesn’t control the feed algo. They control what content is uploaded. Imagine putting work into a video yet it never seeing the light because it was shadow banned. Now imagine it not allowed to be seen. The former is the western world. The latter is china.
Please, for the love of God, can people please stop making me pry their point from their hands? What about astroturfing makes reddit, a platform where you can build your own walled garden, a platform where you cannot find content that isn't filtered through US hegemony?
It allows you to see content typically hidden on other platforms. There should be freedom of choice. Its not like TikTok is the only game in town so if you are that triggered by the content that is on there then you should just log onto Meta platforms and leave the settings to restrict certain political posts that they quietly pushed to the "ON" setting.
As I have mentioned above and in other replies. Meta platforms has quietly introduced a filter for certain political topics that was pushed to their user base with no notification.
This is bigger than China for a lot of people. TikTok has given an alternative voice to groups typically marginalized on pro-Western platforms. We typically see hypocrisy from the West when it comes to Israel and current times are no different. Tiktok has allowed nearly more access to whatever footage is capable of sneaking out of the warzone whereas Meta platforms tend to suppress. (ex: they recently auto-defaulted a restriction on political content without informing their users).