Comment by PraetorianGourd
4 years ago
TikTok is brought up because it has an insane amount of influence on the culture and identity of a huge swath of people. Do you seriously believe that China, or any country, would not want to leverage such influence to persuade or alter the culture or a potential advisory?
We all shit our pants because Russia used Meta, and American company, to influence the 2020 election. Imagine the same amount of data, a more accurate algorithm, and entirely within the control of foreign actors.
It doesn't matter if it is China or Colombia or Japan, a foreign company have that much influence over the opinions citizens of a country is dangerous.
Who are you, Xi Jinping? You basically word for word translated their foreign social media policy. Luckily we live in a capitalist free market, free competition ideology and not a heavy protectionist centrally influenced market economy here in the US.
Just because it is a policy of China, and as I am _not_ Mr. Jinping, I will take your word for it, doesn't mean it is incorrect. Some things work well in free markets, some don't. Maybe the ability to influence millions of people is a thing that isn't so great in an unregulated market.
> Maybe the ability to influence millions of people is a thing that isn't so great in an unregulated market.
This is actually the underpinnings of the free market and free speech. It's the ability for everyone to influence everyone else. What do you think speech is? It's the ability to say things that may influence others... and we let people think for themselves whether they should get influenced or not. Once we decide to think for others and choose what's best for other's, we'll have become the authoritarians.