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While I would find an American tiktok ban funny, this satire/article gives me mixed feelings because the "tiktok ban legislation" they're trying to pass, has some real dystopic shit hidden in it, behind the only slightly dystopic veil of "banning the Chinese".
While China is definitely a problem to be dealt with, I think it's become the new "Think of the children!"
As a Canadian, I'm much more concerned with America than China. You guys are much more of a problem for the average earthling.
It's true. Our house is rotting and the Boomers won't let anyone but fascists take over.
It was never the propagandized version of America you see in media. It's always been the shady organization you think it is. From the genocide of the native Americans to the willingness to supply weapons of war to a country committing genocide in broad daylight, today.
"These commie Timtoks will drag the kids to hell where they'll burn with the D&D dungeon masters and the people who hand out free hallucinogens to children!"
-Republican Suburban Hellscape
It's not about the videos. It's about the owners having strong ties to the government. Who wants information. If it was the videos they wouldn't care.
If we can agree that this is a problem, then all American social media companies should be banned as well, which I'm not entirely opposed to. What people are taking issue with is that this level of logic is only applied against China, and not American companies, which are guilty of the same crimes.
Are you taking about TikTok or about X/Meta/Google?
Tbf I think those are all banned/heavily censored to some degree in China. Google maps doesn't work in China for example.
But when the United States starts doing the same thing it does weaken the narrative that China is some authoritarian hell scape unless people are willing to accept the United States is as well.
Look at it from outside China and the US and try to find the difference.
More than that, it seems to validate the Chinese philosophy that censorship is the right way to combat foreign influence. The enforcement mechanisms are pretty obvious follow-ons of the premise, which is why we've mostly attempted to avoid this kind of thing. In my mind the marketplace of ideas fallout is the real problem.