I’d understand and be open to a blanket ban or restrictions on all algorithmic short form media, but that’s not what this is. The rationale for the US ban is supposed to be privacy and limiting foreign influence, not concerns over algorithms or they’d have to come up with a reason they’re not banning all the other algorithmic short form media out there. Singling one company out, as the EFT and others have pointed out repeatedly, does nothing about privacy and security issues that are at least as bad with TikTok’s competitors.

This is a combination of censorship (particularly of pro-Palestine content, which many TikTok users are defiantly and persistently supporting even though it’s been severely restricted there), and probably some pandering to certain groups. I’m getting increasingly concerned with this idea I keep seeing people espouse this borderline fascistic idea that rather than encouraging people to develop media literacy, we should just censor all information they see, as if long-term censorship in sanctioned corporate media didn’t set the tone for so many of the problems we’re facing now.