NSA and cghq have tapped onto the global fiber optic systems on a global scale and see spying on every single person on the planet with dragnet systems alongside as you say biometrics, and that includes US citizen data.
Where does that fall into?
The only reasons not to include them are purely nationalistic.
Edit: Here's the summary of this thread so far:
1) Let's make a rule against it instead of just hitting companies based on their nationality
2) A rule would be great, but in the mean time let's target the worst actors
3) These US based spy agencies do a bunch of stuff that is similar, where are they on that list?
4) That's off topic whataboutism
5) Seems like the same topic, why is it different?
6) It just is, no explanation required
Using "whataboutism" to try to shut down discussions you don't like is not intellectually interesting or useful.
it always goes along the lines of your thread;
a: "hey, look at awful thing x <other country> is doing, we should do something about that"
b: "we do that too, and it is bad. we should fix it"
a: "that's whataboutism and it's off topic"
where x includes, but is not limited to: class-based legal asymmetry, extralegal incarceration, the existence of a ruling class, unprovoked invasions of sovereign territory, race-based murder by state actors, news suppression...
.. and mass surveillance with a political agenda.
Were I to Don my tinfoil chapeau, I'd say there's a taste of astroturfing to conversations like these. Abusive patterns of social interaction that certainly seem like they're in service of a national agenda. But lacking proof, I won't.
What it was being used to do was to support the argument that "instead of just banning one company, we should create rules that apply fairly."
That isn't deflection.
Notably, the first non-TikTok entities that were mentioned as needing to be reigned in were the KGB. Nobody complained that was off topic.
So while "whataboutism" and allegations of "whataboutism" can both be (edit: and frequently are) used to distract and deflect, that doesn't mean that every instance of either is doing that. You have to ACTUALLY READ what is being said and how it relates, not make snap judgments.
You can see throughout these comments, and everywhere else, every time this topic comes up, the "but also the USA" fallacious argument is brought out. It's really not relevant.
You climb a mountain one step at a time.
Neither KGB or CCP are 'known' for anything like that in 80% of the world. They aren't even 'known' for such things in majority of Europe. They are 'known' for that only in Angloamerica and sufficiently propagandized segments in its satellites.
There isnt ONE single country which the Angloamerican establishment did not smear in the past 60 years. That's why 80% of the world literally stopped heeding anything it says.
But lets start by simply banning the most criminal organizations first. If the KGB, CCP, or any other group known for imprisoning and killing literally millions of people is running a social network we need to block it right away.
Bytedance has forced CCP members on their board and you can bet the government uses the user data, behavior data and biometrics to help squash dissent.
Then we can move on to blocking the networks sharing data with less dangerous groups.