Grumpy David wrote:Alvin Flummux wrote:Grumpy David wrote:And the Tik Tok ban bill is moving through to the Senate, strong bipartisan support seems to only exist when it comes to tackling the Chinese Communist Party & winning Cold War II.
The TikTok ban has nothing to do with the CCP (though it is a very convenient excuse) and everything to do with the fact that it's the only major social media platform not under American control. It might be the fastest and easiest means of disseminating information to a mass audience we've ever had, and they hate that.
Millions also depend on it for their livelihoods, for it to get the word out about their work. But "NaTiOnAl SeCuRiTy". Yeah no. It's information control.
There wouldn’t be strong bipartisan support for the ban if it was a Canadian company.
Well no, because by now it most probably would've been eaten up by Amazon or Meta, or some other megacorp. And just like everywhere else in Social Media Land, the left would be being suppressed, fascism would be promoted all over it, with Nazi astroturfing that dominates every other platform and comments section.
And it still might end up that way - Zuckerberg, a key voice against TikTok, has been hosting American politicians at some fancy place in Hawaii, buying their support for his bid to buy it. A lot of them have bought Meta stocks in anticipation of the windfall they'd make if he is successful, and if he gets that algorithm, you can bet he'd weaponize it in exactly the way he and others claim China does/will. And then he'd sell our data to China anyway, because he's a banana split.
79 US senators voted to ban it. They can't get 60 votes for a minimum wage hike, they can't address climate change or Christian nationalism or corruption or kids being shot in school, but they can recruit a ton of Democrats to destroy their own best messaging system.