Sure but it is about how you fix them. Suddenly it is becoming acceptable for governments to control the access to services of their citizens - much like the way China & Russa used to do since ever. These things have far reaching implications beyond business, it's not like putting high tax on imports.
China employs child labor, should USA start using child labour too to compete with China?
If it's not obvious already, I am not fan of China's way of doing things and what I am advocating is that the west should be tackling the issues without becoming China. Yes, I get it, china blocks Facebook but the answer to that should't be blocking TikTok because this means that China got it right and the way forward is being like China.
What is your alternative?
If we have learned anything in the last decade, it is that globalization has just let us externalize the costs of western behavior and focus those costs in Asia (temporarily) until it comes back to bite us.
I.e. short term thinking out of wall st/washington
I’d argue that this is an example of the US making the playing field more fair and competitive. TikTok has free reign in both the US and China. US social media companies don’t. If the US banned Airbus from selling planes in the US, do you think France and the EU would just say “well, the free market will win out!” And stick to that principle and not subsequently ban Boeing?
I’m also a bit baffled at the overreaction here. I’m paraphrasing but comments that imply that the US does this wantonly and regularly are quite confusing, as are ones implying that the US is losing it’s free market leadership or something. Factually this is incorrect as it’s well known that other countries have more free and fair markets (Nordics for example), and I think similar comments imply some sort of international agreement that views US actions here as bad, when that’s unlikely to be the case and certainly hasn’t been proven.
> you can expect that GDPR will loose relevance as EU & others will also look into banning foreign internet companies.
I don’t see any credible evidence of this. It would be very bad for the EU as well and I don’t think Europe really has this desire. But you can also look at proposed taxes that don’t specifically target but mostly only affect large US Internet companies to see the protectionism that the EU is engaging in as well.