Comment by xyzzy123
2 days ago
Having an overseas social media platform widely used in your country is basically giving foreign intelligence direct access to the brainstem of your citizens.
It's not even about speech necessarily, it's about what speech is amplified and what suppressed, and whether those perspectives are organic or manipulated. Also, who can read all the messages and analyse the trends.
If the US was as memetically robust as you say, foreign owned TikTok wouldn't be a problem. But even free speech cannot hold up under manipulation.
I think a lot of ppl in the US don't notice that this is the position that every other country is in with respect to US social media.
I disagree with your conclusion, but my argument is rather about why a strong censorship and surveillance apparatus exists in UK and PRC and why USA merely has mass surveillance apparatus without concomitant mass censorship. Another feature of American memetic ecosystem is some immunization against manipulation, in that memes such as “Russia is manipulating elections” or “university professors are indoctrinating students” are widespread if not universal. You will note that in nature the most effective rate of immunity in a population is never 100%.
I am a humble HN poster, and this is simply food for thought, and I appreciate your attention.
Likewise, thanks for the perspectives.
> Having an overseas social media platform widely used in your country is basically giving foreign intelligence direct access to the brainstem of your citizens.
Hot take: it works both ways, and could pressure feed brainrot contents straight into brainstems of intelligence agency officials at work with full attention to re-educate them up to your own standards, which can be nice.