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True- why should the US allow US citizens to use Chinese printing presses?
After all, they could print seditious or blasphemous material, or find out about our culture and weaknesses through our writing, and surely our own printing presses are sufficiently neutral and decentralized to result in all content legal under the First being printable so there's no reason any of our citizens would need to go around that. Our citizens always act in such good faith towards each other that this is not a valid problem.
That's the main reason I'm suspicious of the ban, and read other legislation that specifically targets the ability to bypass bans as running up against 2A issues. (And yes, I'm aware that Chinese-made weapons are banned from import through the same legal mechanisms- too bad that import ban greatly benefits US industry so the lobby groups won't ever touch that one; I doubt the EFF will lift a finger over VPNs for similar reasons should it come to that provided the Blues pick the right initial target.)
[To piggyback off a sibling comment's argument]
True- the Chinese have a history of "fortifying" Blue politicians in the West (evidence of this always red meat for red tribe).
My objections center around not being sufficiently convinced this is true on their platform right now; I support the ban coincident with my certainty that it is.
TikTok employees have the ability to amplify or dampen specific videos and trends as they see fit. The analogy here to a (supposedly neutral) printing press would be inaccurate.
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That's not what I'm saying, quite the opposite in fact. I'm asking if you're the US government, why would you allow a foreign power to pull the same kind of psy-ops on your citizens that you've been pulling in recent years?
And to that point in particular, have you missed the part where I was in favor of banning all big platforms?
Again, don't get me wrong. I'm sure the ban is not proposed in good faith, and it amounts to the US government wanting to keep narrative control over it's own citizens, but if you want good arguments for a ban, there are plenty.
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More like, why should the US tolerate Chinese newsstands set up by the entrances of high, middle, and elementary schools which freely give away slick magazines which appear to be about everything teens and kids enjoy but also have an editorial undercurrent of “disobey your parents”? Also, for some reason the newsstand vendors are always looking at the schools through binoculars and taking notes.
Because part of what’s concerning is the content the platform pushes, and part is the sheer breathtaking volume of telemetry the app collects.
But of course the cure is worse than the disease. It turns out this particular legislation is worse for American freedoms as the app is for American security. So, I don’t support the legislation, even though I support banning the app.
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