frjosh on Nostr: The irony is not lost: TikTok hides behind "the constitution" and notions of free ...

The irony is not lost: TikTok hides behind "the constitution" and notions of free speech to protect their cash cow, while at the same time heavily censoring simplistic things like criticism of their product... or the Chinese government... all on an app not allowed in China.

TikTok is brain rot, and even though it will likely be salvaged through sale, I wouldn't be sad to see it go. Meanwhile, I'm interested in what the government knows and isn't telling us about the nature of the app. We know it's incredibly invasive from a data collection standpoint, but what else is there? Any time both of our terrible political parties agree on something with so little front-facing disclosure, my ears perk up.

As it stands, the most troubling thing about this censure is that our government officials aren't concerned about the terrible consequences of privacy-invasive data collection, so much as they are which country siphons the data and is in control. If they were truly friends of the American people, they'd enact better privacy laws to protect the people from the companies stateside who track our digital lives (and then sell the data to the CCP, among others).

In reality, it's about control. The federal government has every major American company in their back pocket, and can call upon them at any time to do their bidding. If there's going to be a targeted psyop via social media, you'd better believe it's going to be as American as apple pie. In the end, maybe this the only motivation both parties needed.