• Naia@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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    16 hours ago

    Except this was never about “malware” or anything else.

    Republicans first wanted to ban it because younger people were getting politically organized on it, and they weren’t voting republican.

    Then it was the main platform where news of Gaza was getting out, because American owned media, social media included, have always towed the line with Israel and anything that shows them in a negative light is just automatically considered “antisemitic”.

    Because of Gaza, Democrats jumped on trying to ban it with Republicans because neither side liked that information was being spread and they had no power to suppress.

    If they actually cared about security or the privacy of citizens they would make regulation that applied to all social media, US included. There is nothing Ticktok does that Facebook, Twitter, and all the rest don’t have a long history of doing. And there was the whole Cambridge Analytica thing where it was found Facebook sold user data and gave access to a foreign group that actively was using Facebook to influence the 2016 election. If China wanted data on US citizens there is nothing stopping them from just buying it from American companies like they already do.

    Also, Twitter was specifically doing things to help prop up Trump this last time at the behest of Musk who was not born in the US and pretty much fits the bill of “foreign agent trying to undermine American values”, except that he’s trying to undermine the people and the push for equality and human rights, which most politicians don’t care about.

    • sakodak@lemmy.world
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      13 hours ago

      I personally appreciate it when people correct me on things like this, so it isn’t a dig or anything, but the phrase is “toe the line.” As in walk up and put your toe on the line.

    • Lemminary@lemmy.world
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      10 hours ago

      It’s hyperbole. I’m saying they would literally install malware in whatever form to stick it to the man instead of doing the more effective thing. I’m not necessarily calling those platforms malware even if they’re kind of iffy.

    • Camelbeard@lemmy.world
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      14 hours ago

      The US banned Huawei, is close to banning TP-Link, so there is definitely a fear over Chinese spyware. It’s a very real risk, just like Russian anti virus software (Kaspersky) had been banned recently.

      But even if you don’t believe it’s about spyware TikTok should still be banned for economic reasons. China basically blocks all non Chinese socialmedia apps, so why would we accept Chinese social media? The playing field should be equal, banning TikTok makes it more equal.

      I don’t really believe Gaza has much to do with it, you can find the same content on YouTube or X or other platforms.