Comment by amrocha 4 days ago
Why is it bad when China (supposedly) creates propaganda on tiktok but it’s good when the US creates propaganda on facebook?
You’re not a government, you’re a person. Either way you’re being manipulated, and the US government definitely doesn’t have your best interests in mind.
Why do we have to choose one? I'm not going to trust US-owned media on the topic of Israel and Palestine, I'm not going to trust Russian media on Ukraine, or Chinese media on Taiwan.
By stifling freedom of expression under the guise of "national security" you're creating blind spots that allow atrocities to go unchallenged. I thought we learned from history but maybe I was wrong.
Huh. What are your interests? I'm curious why you think they would come in conflict with those of the US.
I'm confused why you think China's interests are irrelevant to you, unless you truly believe geopolitics is a zero-sum game. We compete in markets, militarily in the indo-pacific, and technologically in ways that are not mutually beneficial.
The US government generally works to maintain harmful institutions like health insurance, gun manufacturing, prisons and policing, etc., and will oppose me through violence if I work to weaken these. They can restrict my access to things online and control what online services I can run via laws like SESTA/FOSTA and this TikTok ban. China can't do any of that to me. I'm less concerned about geopolitics given our massive military and the position of the dollar, not to mention our cultural influence via the Internet (which bans like this directly weaken).
> Why is it bad when China (supposedly) creates propaganda on tiktok but it’s good when the US creates propaganda on facebook?
Because this imaginary world where the US somehow equally controls Facebook on the level that China directly influences TikTok isn’t one that exists?
This low resolution view of the world is grating. “Facebook is a US based social media company so it’s exactly the same as China and TikTok” is completely devoid of the context of reality.
Not only does Facebook actually have 1st amendment speech rights with a judicial system empowered to enforce them. But even the slightest appearance that the US government was attempting to influence speech on Facebook would be a career ending scandal.
Compared to TikTok where the CCP literally has a seat on ByteDance’s board by law and has for its entire existence had its algorithm nuke political topics that China does not want discussed.
It’s not the same thing.
Honestly, I don’t believe China has as much control over TikTok as you claim, and I believe the US government has much higher control over FB than you.
So from where I’m standing it’s the same thing.
And to give you some perspective, there’s plenty of content critical of China on TikTok even though that stuff gets banned on DouYin.
Because we live in a world of Sovereign States, where the point of discrimination very much is between Citizen and Non-Citizen? You free to renounce your citizenship and live without the Protections of the Government, there are many who would be quite happy with that to take your wealth freely then :)
The only people thinking in such a arrogantly privileged manner ironically are Westerners, try saying this crap in China or India and people will laugh at you all day. Or I doubt this poster has the best interests of Americans in mind either.