OK. How about “they’re using the app to spy on us for a Foreign Hostile Government”

Is "Foreign Hostile Government" an official legal distinction? I thought the US was still on good terms with China as a trade partner.

It’s a weird duality with import taxes acting as a middle ground. It seems the belief that a conflict with China is inevitable is becoming more pervasive. So much of the US economy relies on reselling Chinese goods that to stop trading completely would be calamitous. I think the idea is to keep trading right up until the war starts. I’ve already stocked up on goods and materials that are only available from China as I include myself as one of those who believe a great power conflict is coming.

Which goods in particular are you stocking up on?

I do small scale manufacturing as a hobby which covers quite a gamut of fields from woodworking, machining, electronics, chemistry etc. So a huge amount of tools and industrial consumables. A lot of electronics modules. Basically anything I think I might need I buy and store. My plan for war breaking out is to stay home and do engineering work.

> It seems the belief that a conflict with China is inevitable is becoming more pervasive.

An actual kinetic conflict would result in a complete destruction of the world economy and WWIII. You can't take these people seriously without carefully examining their motivations (certainly most notably, to build up the capacity of our own military).

They don’t start that way, they start as regional conflicts and grow. ‘How could we not help the poor so and sos that we’ve signed some tangling alliance with…’

"Foreign Adversary" is, and the US considers China to be one.

https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-15/subtitle-A/part-7/subp...

Given the Snowden revelations any kind of reciprocity in the international community regarding that principle would make basically all US tech companies US-market only...

KSA used Pegasus to spy on and murder an american journalist. They're also a major shareholder of twitter.

I’m not really sure what the legal status of Pegasus is. Also, I doubt it’s on 150 million American’s phones, though who knows.

I don’t believe TikTok and Pegasus belong in the same category.

Regarding Twitter, only Elon can answer how much of American’s Twitter data is flowing through KSA, though I believe it’s zero.

Edit: I’m fully behind any moves to ban Pegasus.

So long as this is equally applied to a domestic hostile government I'm fine with that.

If only!