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Why only TikTok? Every social media company does the exact same thing.
This is true. Cambridge Analytica wasn't that long ago, either.
Right? The algorithms are all designed to stoke outrage. Why don't we do something like the EU and pass legislation that applies to all social media companies, not just demonize certain ones. What am I missing here?
I can only think that TikTok's status as a state-affiliated company might have something to do with it being singled out.
In practice, however, other social media platforms are controlled by capital and state actors have a lot of capital to leverage, so there's effectively no difference other than China can do for free via TikTok what Russia and the US have to pay for on any other social media platform.
Mountains of hypocrisy and xenophobia.
They want to be able to tell voters on the right that they "stood up to China and big tech" and voters on the left that they "stood up to social media companies perverting democracy" without going after the American companies that do the same things but pay them a lot more in legal bribes (and probably illegal ones too).
While other companies also have issues, TikTok goes further by having strong connection to the PRC:
Oh...so it's ok if a US company pushes political division, but if it's a foreign company then it's an issue?
It's more of an issue because it's a foreign company. For example, companies like Facebook (Meta) and Cambridge Analytica can be investigated and regulated by US agencies like the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). But they have no sway over TikTok's developer ByteDance because it's located outside of the US.
That's what this bill is trying to do: force ByteDance to divest.
They aren't, though. Because they keep legally bribing Congress to give them more or less free rein.
You're gunna turn into dust by the time the government regulates Meta. The only reason they care about TikTok so much is optics and the fact that a foreign company is abusing the system in the same way as the domestic social media companies. The fix isn't to divest ByteDance, the fix is to pass actual regulation with teeth that applies to domestic and foreign companies alike.
All things being equal, yes it's worse if it's a foreign company.
Yes. Literally.
Facebook, Twitter and Google are at least as obedient to the whims of the fascist Netanyahu and Modi governments (not to mention the parts of the US government that routinely violate the rights of its own citizens and people from all other countries) as Tiktok is to the Faux-Socialist totalitarian regime of China.
I don't know why anyone downvoted you, you're absolutely right. All of those companies are completely beholden to foreign powers. On top of that, lawmakers are saying that as long as Bytedance officially severs itself from the PRC, they can continue existing. As if that somehow means that the PRC couldn't still use it to influence elections.
Minor correction: the companies are beholden to capital, a lot of which happens to be supplied by foreign powers. Facebook won't create Russian propaganda, but they'll gladly take piles of cash to host targeted misinformation from the Russian government to sway elections.
The US government seems to think that the Chinese government wouldn't likewise just pay TikTok to host the content they want anyways.
Oh lmao you weren't just posting this to make fun of the headline???
Because China and trade war.
America does not want non-Americans to be successful.
My guess is that they suspect that TikTok, unlike Twitter, will not help Trump.
Trump has now signaled he is against banning TikTok, so I expect any attempts to do so will fail in the House after all of his followers in Congress suddenly U-turn on their earlier stance.
The MAGA crowd is likely now going to spin this as an attempt by Biden to stifle the free market and control the messaging during the election.
Rachel Maddow just covered this.
Drumft came out for TikTok after meeting at Mag-a-Lardo with a billionaire TikTok investor.
He's desperate for a sugar daddy to cover his half billion bar tab.
There is no bar tab. Trump doesn't drink.
He needs a sugar daddy to cover his half billion diaper tab.