@SocialistMMA
If Tiktok was so dangerous for consumers like capitalists claim, wouldn’t the free market adjust to this fact and TikTok naturally phase out?
That’s the theory behind the free market that ridiculous capitalists push. So what gives? Getting cold feet? Starting to realize your ideology is absurd?
Not necessarily. The lawmakers are stating they are afraid of a hostile foreign government interfering or collecting sensitive data via the app. The "free market" will only regulate profitability and desire for a product. But if there's surreptitious data harvesting that won't be apparent to users.
There's also an imbalance in that a foreign command economy can drive tiktok development at a loss if needed or simply have access to funds a free market economy wouldn't.
I don't really believe in the free market but this is the stance the initial argument took.
All correct, but a foreign government is just another actor on the US market, and if there is such a thing an actor that is not regulated by the market, then the market is not self-regulating, and needs outside constraints.
Not a very deep insight, granted, but surprisingly not universally accepted.
I collect irony, and someone arguing against free markets and government intervention at the same time is a nice addition.
You an criticize both extremes without being hypocritical.
The argument against government here is that they're banning specific app without trying to regulate it like government should.
I really don't know how this became the narrative. Other than it is basically what Bytedance wants it to be. The US Congress received several closed door briefings on Bytedance and why it poses a risk. We have no idea what was said but it is unlikely that the primary concern was China knowing the phone location of some 16yo doing a dance impression.
All we do know is that bitter enemies in the most dysfunctional Congress of the modern era agreed that this is a real problem. That should be a real wake up to people dismissing this. There are Congress members who would happily admit to dancing on each other's graves agreeing.
Right, giving authoritarians easy access to the psyche of your country is good because we have capitalism.
I hope this is the stupidest shit I read today
So you're probably somebody who doesn't understand sarcasm either, huh?
You literally agree with the point of the OP. They are a critic of capitalism and are turning the free market concept back on the conversation for TikTok.
Maybe the shit you read isn't the stupid part of the equation?
One thing to keep in mind, that when it comes to the internet, the customer-product dynamic is more complex than with physical goods. App users are customers, but also the product.
The relationship between large Chinese companies and the Chinese government is very different than the relationship between "American" (in quotes because a lot of them are incorporated elsewhere for tax purposes) and the American government.
TikTok is so dangerous because it's not our government that's benefiting by collecting all that data. Our own homegrown surveillance social media is totally fine though.
US exploitation = "that's the free market baby!"
China exploitation = "a threat to American democracy!"
Knowtherules.jpeg
That is a false equivalency. You know it too. If it wasn't you would have something to back that statement up.
The bad actions of one party does not justify the bad actions of another.
China can literally mobilized a bunch of people to change the mindset of ordinary Americans. Make them vote for a president that aligns closer to China. Make people think it's ok to invade Taiwan and ok to claim the south China seas.
They are close if not already there with the technology. Luckily we have time on our side and the teenagers who are already mobilized are not at the voting age.
Yeah it's almost like instead of providing value to exchange for currency - like in an ideal capitalist model - you can extract currency through extortion and lying.
And the best part is, the second way works much better!
That idealized (and nonexistent) version of capitalism assumes that each individual is a rational actor (they're not)
So the argument of this post is that tiktok should be forced to sell?
No. The argument is that free market dynamics are a capitalist dogwhistle and we should nationalize and reign in all infrastructure that affects massive swathes of the populace, not just the ones capitalists don't like.