...and TikTok will still have horrible data privacy and domestic spying capabilities, it will just be owned by US Big Tech instead of Chinese Big Tech.
In fact they are not only purposely funding the genocide, they are actively ignoring majority of people against it, even surpassing the senate just to be sure they can send the money to Israel quickly
Actually since TikTok is where most of the popular support for Palestine is from and probably why after decades of this genocide it finally became well-known, they are trying to shut it down, since China won't censor it for them. Classic fascist moves from the government.
Did we forget about the Uighur’s? China isn’t even TRYING to hide that, but, yeah. Except that they ban any mention of it within their borders.
Mind you, I’m not trying to take away from what the US is and has done, but, currently, the only super power locked in a provable genocide, is china. Simple as that. The US is so fucking sideways that we’re simultaneously bringing food into Gaza while also supporting its destruction. Really nothing new there, money goes up. But, different than state sponsored genocide. Fuck, I hate that that’s a buzzword.
the only super power locked in a provable genocide, is china
This statement is absolutely false. Isreal genocide is almost exlusively funded by the US.
we’re simultaneously bringing food into Gaza while also supporting its destruction
Small amounts of food into gaza is PR and changes nothing in the big picture. There is a big difference in amount of money sent for weapons to Isreal and food to Gaza. You can send few trucks of food, get pirctures, run it in media, and then silently give billions for weapons. There is no two sides of this, US government is fully running a genocide in Gaza with full knowledge and intent.
There is nothing that Chinese government does that US and Russia government don't do as well. There is only difference in the media coverege of these things in each of the countries and is the result of difference in opinion between people who are exposed to that media.
officially: data mining and algorithm manipulation to promote propaganda
unofficially: data mining that hasn't been approved by the US government and algorithm manipulation to promote propaganda that hasn't been approved by the US government
Quick Google search:
"Generally, there are no restrictions on foreign ownership of a company formed in the United States. The procedure for a foreign citizen to form a company in the US is the same as for a US resident."
The missing link is to recognize that billionaires are citizens only technically. They have no interest in the well-being of their nation (or even their planet), nor are they subject to any of its laws.
Is Russia doing a race thing? I thought it was an imperialism thing, needed access to Crimea for the black sea and needs to get that pesky foreign government out of the way to ensure that access
Russia has killed over 30000 civilians, they have abducted 20000 ukrainian children and assigned them to Russian families, they have destroyed Ukrainian museums, churches, and art. It's just as much of a genocide.
The Ukrainian thing is more of a cultural genocide with Putin having a plan on "integrating" all current Ukrainians into Russian society, but it checks out, because "integration" means "throwing away their own culture for the holy Mother Russia".
They aren't protecting us from TikTok, they are protecting themselves from us. They put a lot of resources into controlling mass media then got blindsided by social media. Now they have social media mostly under control, but only in this country. They can't risk the next Bernie Sanders giving people hope for a better world.
ok, to be fair. There have been recent investments into people generally in poverty, in regards to improving their financial situation, as a means to improve their overall health, it's still in trial stages, and very new, but it IS happening, and it IS positively affecting people.
Also, "we" aren't really witnessing a genocide, i'm assuming to this is referring to war, if not, I'll take my leave.
last i checked, there is a wiki page with a list of "serial killers" and if you sort by death count, you get like 180? Last i checked, similar situation there i imagine. Some dude apparently just woke up and decided that he needed to violence. Gotta love humanity.
Should have said while approving/enabling of a genocide.
The current administration has vetoed multiple UN drafts for a conflict resolution over Gaza as well as other UN resolutions proposed. We're still sending the Israelis weapons. Neither congress nor the current administration care.
Yeah the information age is turning into the profit maximized end game.
We all had access to information, then gave up our own in response. And now having specific data to find truly only the most useful and profitable people and marketing is the new gold. But honestly I think the data isn't actually as useful as oil. It's more like gold. And these companies are trying to sell shovels. Tools for scraping and using the data but eventually people must realize that it isn't enough.
🤓 "Uhrm axetually, inflation is dropping and wages are slightly rising, so people shouldn't complain because the economy is actually great. They're really just imagining things and suffering because they weren't responsible with their covid checks."
Seriously, liberals think that's all people are upset about. They don't recognize that already existing trends and enshitification of capitalist products are making things suck for people. They don't appreciate that housing inflation has been way too high for decades, and that cheaper nonessential junk doesn't make up for it. Inelastic demand that the government will not address because politicians don't understand the struggles of new homeowners and renters.
When most people can't win at the game, they don't care to uphold it.
Someone is going to see this and downvote you because they saw you use the word "liberal" negatively and immediately think you're a right-winger or something.
But yeah, if the media outlets would understand that "the economy" (rich peoples yacht money) is based on garbage metrics, maybe they wouldn't act so offended when people call them out on it
This place has become more liberal recently. I don't love smug leftists who think being a socialist automatically makes you virtuous, but it is annoying to deal with people that aren't fully awake to reality. Capitalism is the problem, and while being scant on solutions and strategies is awful, not even seeing the problems is worse.
I just don't understand how some people think rejecting capitalism is going too far. Like it's bad, everyone knows it's destroying us, it takes nothing to admit it. Feels great to be anti-capitalist.
Yeah, but as of July 2022 the credit bureaus don't report medical debt. After I got a surprise $5,000 bill in the mail after my copay for an ER visit where the doctor spent 5 minutes misdiagnksing me and sending me to to wrong specialist, I was able to tell them to go to hell.
I really don't think people even understand inflation enough to realize "inflation is dropping" just means prices are still going up but only a little at a time instead of the near doubling it was a year or 2 ago and how little people have been wage matched to the stipl increasing costs.
People acting more terrified at the loss of tik tok from their lives than they did during covid, while losing people from their lives.
Tik tok might as well just change their name to empathy box, because they have convinced their users that the act of watching content on empathy box makes them more moral and politically aware than the rest of us.
At the end of the day, we have to be nervous when a foreign nation has content reach to 80℅ of Americans. This foreign nation is banning Americans from accusing it of genocide while allowing an economic incentive for Americans to accuse themselves and everybody else of doing it.
Deep down, every one of us knows tik tok is a power nobody can or should be trusted with.
Don't use TikTok, don't really care too much either way, but watching this whole thing unfold is starting to open my eyes to the ways these companies can shape public opinion.
They're apparently sending notifications to people to contact their reps and it seems very likely that they're promoting content that advocates against the ban.
I'm not a fan of censorship or blocking internet services but TikTok really seems to trying to make a good case for it.
My understanding is that while rights are inalienable, meaning we recognize that Chinese citizens have the inherent right of free speech as well, not just in our direction, I'm not sure we grant free speech to mean a foreign state gets to use its technology to determine our national conversation.
I'm sure there would be teenage trans kids who through confusion ended up pro hamas, but I think tik tok could almost be accused of creating and fostering a movement that is certainly close to that very thing.
I never conflated a pro-hamas movement with an anti-israel one.
If there are leftists or vulnerable minorities who have become indoctrinated into pro-hamas rhetoric, yes, I clearly think tik tok is responsible because these kids certainly aren't reading it on on storm front.
I am not interested in having a conversation where you pretend I am talking about the pro Palestine/anti Israeli government movements.
Sure and my racist uncle's joke about drowning a random person totally isn't just his black guy joke barely concealed.
The narrative has for months been that anyone who is critical of Israel is Pro Hamas. And now you want us to believe that's changed when someone is defending the most breathtakingly xenophobic bill in modern times?
My dude. No leftist is pro Hamas. Hamas wants to create a religious ethnostate just like Israel wants to create a religious ethnostate. We ARE pro Palestinian freedom. But Israel is the one who keeps making Hamas the dominant Palestinian political party, in order to use them as an excuse to continue their genocide.
Stop pretending to know what the left thinks when you’ve clearly never actually spoken to their members.
This isn't the first time a company has done that. Uber famously used pop up ads to get people to vote for a ballot proposition. Enron went so hard on PR that everyone blamed the government for people losing the pension that had already been embezzled by the executives.
If you’re gonna ban this speech, then you should ban all speech from foreign governments, including the propaganda Israel is filling our country with for their genocide.
But this same congress who is so ready to silence China is unwilling to silence Israel. And Israel is not our ally. Our allies don’t try to drag us into genocides.
That's not what they're talking about doing. They want to sell TikTok to a US interest. Not 900 of them. This is literally a chance for Musk, Zuckerberg, Apple, and Alphabet to grab up the best short form video app for cheap.
That's all it is. It is incredibly corrupt and the state department calls that out in other countries all the time.
How does us banning TikTok make us any better than China then? How does it make us any more free?
The whole point of freedom of speech is that everyone has it, even that speech you hate. The answer is more speech.
Lets see Biden grow a pair and go on new media and answer actual questions, not softballs. Then maybe people will start listening to him. And maybe he’ll learn what we’re actually concerned about.
As an Australian who gets bombarded by the US point of view and agenda from their tech companies - I think America could do with an outside influence undermining the government's point of view.
As the post points out - the US government is doing an incredibly shitty job looking out for its citizens, and if they were afraid of a propaganda machine holding them accountable and creating civil unrest it might be for the best.
It's just a shame the power that owns the means to do that happens to be china. I wonder if things will return to normal once the citizens pack away the guillotine
Undermining the US government's point of view is one thing, but the argument could be made they are undermining your viewpoint more than the US government's.
Oh for sure. I guess I despair because I don't see a way out of the bullshit without civil unrest, but I think we have all grown weak and soft in the middle and are just willing to take it. I'm not sure it's possible anymore and feel like the human race as a whole are just becoming slaves.
I used to think the USA at least had a semblance of justice and fairness especially compared to China, but I think it really is just every man for themselves now and greed is all that matters.
It's not much better here in Australia either. There is no sense of community, or trying to build a better society. It's almost applauded to be corrupt and selfish.
The government does a shitty job, but it is representative. American culture is dominated by billionaire worship, consumerism, and greed. We shouldn't be so surprised when our elected officials share our values.
Deep down, every one of us knows tik tok is a power nobody can or should be trusted with.
I disagreed with you up until this point. You're exactly right about this.
The problem is that nobody should have this kind of power. But our government thinks this kind of power is just fine as long as it's a US company they can control.
If nobody should have this power than nobody should have this power. Not China. Not Musk. Not Zuckerberg. NOBODY.
But we have a feckless, ineffective government written by racists 250 years ago and this is literally all they can do.
American social media companies are also controlled by foreign powers. I have no interests in common with the ultra wealthy and massive corporations that control this country. They are just as foreign to me as anyone in another country. I trust them less than I trust TikToc.
Actually, yes. The only exception would be YouTube, but I don't let the algorithm tell me what to watch. I have a handful of channels I follow, and sometimes look up a howto video.
I am much less concerned about foreign news reaching the American people than the outright lies being spread in the American news without people batting an eye. And the fact that a foreign government (Israel) literally owns our government.
Oh so a chinese news source pointed this out to the youth? Good. It shows that we are so sick of not being able to trust OUR news that we’re looking elsewhere. Banning TikTok won’t fix that. I won’t go back to CNN or Fox if you take away that option. I’ll continue to look elsewhere
Who’s next? Al Jazerra? The hindustan times? The BBC?
Are you actually fucking insane? How does the Israeli government literally own the US government? That's not even true figuratively. What the fuck are you saying
