Comment by fidotron
12 hours ago
> 1) Influence- TikTok gives the CCP significant direct influence over the views of Americans
More to the point: it removes the ability of the existing American establishment to monopolise the viewpoints presented to Americans.
Americans are already quite free to seek a broad range of domestic and foreign viewpoints. Chinese citizens, on the other hand, are not. At all.
The key point here is that an algorithm can invisibly nudge those viewpoints, and a foreign adversary controls the algorithm.
Insofar as your claim is that powerful people and institutions care most about power, I agree. It’s very telling that TikTok would shutdown instead of divest. (Meanwhile, U.S. companies have routinely taken the other side of the deal in China: minority stake joint ventures in which “technology transfer” is mandated. AKA intellectual property plundering.)
> Americans are already quite free to seek a broad range of domestic and foreign viewpoints.
The reality is they live in an establishment controlled media bubble, that is itself full of propaganda.
Being free does not mean free to live in a lie constructed for the benefit of someone else, it means being free to live in reality, and that freedom is being denied to Americans. At least the Chinese are aware of their reality.
I can navigate my browser to Al Jazeera, RT, or Xinhua without interference. Meanwhile, China has a national firewall imprisoning its netizens. So, while most Americans opt to live inside filter bubbles, they are free to escape if they so choose. Not so for the citizens of China, who live in the iron grip of the CCP.
That’s to say nothing of censorship. I can post “f** Joe Biden” on any social platform in the U.S. Meanwhile, a Chinese netizen compares Xi to Winnie the Pooh and gets a visit from the police. And their post never sees the light of day.
These aren’t differences of degree. They are differences of category.
17 replies →
> The key point here is that an algorithm can invisibly nudge those viewpoints, and a foreign adversary controls the algorithm.
Compared to all the other algorithmic social media in which domestic adversaries control the algorithm.
Yes, exactly, finally you get it. Because yes, China is worse.
> It’s very telling that TikTok would shutdown instead of divest.
TBF; The CCP passed laws that likely make it illegal for TikTok to sell/export that kind of information (the algo). They can't divest without also neutering the sticking power of the service.
And why did the CCP pass those laws? Perhaps bc they understood it would block divestment, acting as a poison pill to would be acquirers, thereby forcing foreign governments to fight their own public in outright banning TikTok.
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> More to the point: it removes the ability of the existing American establishment to monopolise the viewpoints presented to Americans.
There is no evidence this exists.
It doesn't have to be either /or. You should be skeptical of US spy agency behavior, and still recognize the threat of Chinese influence via psyops algorithm to the United States.