this post was submitted on 09 Jan 2025
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Summary

TikTok faces a U.S. shutdown by Jan. 19 unless the Supreme Court delays or blocks a law requiring its Chinese parent, ByteDance, to divest.

The Biden administration defends the law as a national security measure, citing potential risks of Chinese government influence. Content creators argue it violates free speech.

Donald Trump, once a supporter of the ban, seeks a delay to reach a "political resolution."

A shutdown could cost TikTok millions of users and revenue. The court’s decision, due soon, could reshape U.S. digital speech policy.

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[–] kava@lemmy.world 4 points 5 hours ago (2 children)

this means they can propaganda individuals so hard it will make your head spin.

Until you have an open source algorithm then any organization controlling a social media site can push propaganda. Just like they do here in the US.

The reason that Tiktok is being banned has nothing to do with data. We know this because you can just buy data about Americans legally from data brokers. This isn't about Chinese propaganda either. The real reason is that Tiktok is not easily put on a leash by the federal government. The real reason is that Tiktok has a large amount of popular leftist and anti-establishment voices. The real reason is that the US wants to funnel people into the social media sites that jump when the government tells them to.

[–] BlameThePeacock@lemmy.ca 2 points 3 hours ago (1 children)

The propaganda here is being pushed generate profit.

In China it's being pushed for political power.

There is a difference.

[–] kava@lemmy.world 1 points 2 hours ago* (last edited 2 hours ago) (1 children)

The propaganda here is being pushed generate profit.

when large tech companies invest and support specific political candidates and take certain politically minded moves- it's for profit.

but if i'm acting in a political manner for profit versus i'm acting in a profitable manner for politics - what is the functional difference?

there is less difference between the chinese system and the US system than many would like to think. the main difference is where the source of the power lies. in the US it's corporate - in China it's the state. but what we have been seeing in the last couple decades is both of them are experiencing a convergent evolution into a merging of corporate and state power. coincidentally it's what many scholars identify as one of the major tenants of fascism in Germany & Italy

[–] BlameThePeacock@lemmy.ca 1 points 2 hours ago (1 children)

The functional difference is the desired outcome.

China wants to control citizens even more than the US government does, by a massive margin.

Just look at the censorship China already has in place, the actual genocide of minorities, and look at what they'd love to be doing to Taiwan (and what they already did to Hong Kong)

Despite what the Cheeto says, the US isn't going to be invading anywhere to expand the US.

[–] kava@lemmy.world 1 points 1 hour ago

neither US and China need to aggressively invade countries to expand and maintain their power base. modern imperialism is propagated economically, through proxy wars, and fought in the ideological space. all things the US and China both work very hard to accomplish

but we are talking about the economic systems of both countries. the fact that large corporations are becoming increasingly chummy with the state. we are starting to look more like China as China has liberalized and looks more like us

[–] HelixDab2@lemm.ee 2 points 4 hours ago (1 children)

Not leftist; pro-China. There's some pretty clear indications that TikTok suppresses posts critical of China and China's interests--despite those topics generating high engagement--while not suppressing information, say, critical of the US. They're clearly acting as an agent of the Chinese gov't.

[–] kava@lemmy.world 1 points 3 hours ago* (last edited 3 hours ago)

That's the thing about state media from China & Russia & Iran. Yes, they are censored in the sense they aren't going to be critical of their host country.

However they are also a means by which certain anti-establishment voices from the West are able to get a platform. For example RT will historically interview people like Chomsky. It's not because Chomsky ideologically aligns with Russia. It's because "enemy of my enemy is my friend". So just because something is censored in one direction, it does not mean everything else on the platform is false.

So if we go to TikTok, China is perfectly fine with certain leftist anti-establishment media whereas it would be algorithm'd away on the other major social media sites.

Again, it has nothing to do with TikTok being pro China. It has everything to do with the US government not being able to control what is on the platform for their own interests. TikTok does not have to answer to the US, and instead of us being OK with that because we're a free country- we're cracking down on dissent because we are becoming increasingly authoritarian.