It's only bizarre if you consider ByteDance as some plucky startup that is being repressed by USA. If you consider it to be under the thumb of the Chinese state then blocking it seems to be the best action to preserve free speech.

Will TikTok remove Chinese propaganda on their platform, how would that conversation even go at their offices? Can we trust that TikTok will not in future censor things that China finds uncomfortable such as Taiwan being an independent country?

Just a few months ago HN was getting exercised about the rights of Hong Kongers. I'd say it is wholly consistent with the political beliefs of the average HNer to want to see a social network operating from within an autocratic state to be banned from operating, or at least under heavy scrutiny.

And would it be equally “pro free speech” if the US went down the road of preventing we citizens from accessing propaganda websites affiliated with the CCP?

And ban “bad” propaganda movies and media from the CCP?

And ban direct conversation with known “bad actors” in the CCP?

This sounds like a really slippery slope to me.

Is this a hypothetical? I don't believe you've tried TikTok if you think scrolls are filled with Chinese propaganda.

Plenty of western companies have been forced to apologize for listing Taiwan as a country. China recently passed a law in Hong Kong that makes criticism of the regime a crime world wide. There's also the whole overwatch debacle.

China does not care about free speech, nor does it pretend to. Allowing a popular forum for speech to operate out of China is dangerous.