> the concern isn't just data collection but manipulation of the american public (psyops).

I don't buy it. If that were actually the concern, we would be talking about banning Facebook and X for manipulating Americans to vote against their own interests and hand over more power & money to the platforms' owners. Facebook has done way, way, way, way more harm to America and Americans than Tiktok ever did. The Tiktok ban is an illegitimate handout to America's oligarchs to protect them from having to compete. It's nothing to do with protecting Americans from manipulation.

American corporations have free speech rights. Chinese corporations do not.

I'm not sure that's true, and even if it was, the law as passed requires American companies to not serve the app from their app stores, which is a restriction of American company speech.

American corporations have free propaganda rights. Chinese corporations shall not.

You have essentially repeated the argument you are replying to while removing the very substance of that argument.

> we would be talking about banning Facebook and X for manipulating Americans vote

in fact, there is alot of talk about this. wasn't that the main reason Musk bought Twitter?

> wasn't that the main reason Musk bought Twitter?

Yes.

> there is alot of talk about this

There's a lot of talk by politicians about banning Facebook & X in the US? Really?

Well FB is American. Even though I and many people agree FB is also a problem, I think it’s pretty clear why those in Washington are more okay with an American company that they have some power over and also should ostensibly care for America versus a company that is ostensibly beholden to an adversary. (To be clear, I don’t think FB cares about America.)

I don’t really see why it’s hard to see the reasoning behind the ban even if one disagrees with it.

Take it to an extreme, imagine there were zero American social media companies in our modern world where most people get there news from social media. That obviously would be a huge security risk, having one’s population’s news being controlled exclusively by foreign states.

American social media is banned in China and if used against americans by its leadership, it would be a domestic threat not a foreign threat. Twitter was bought by Elon and used to influence an election successfully. if we're honest in this discussion, we shouldn't pretend the threat isn't real. Foreign companies get banned from owning american companies all the time. Biden just banned US steel's takeover by a japanese company.

You know what scares me? how the actual majority on HN is critical of the tiktok ban despite all what I have just said being obvious things a critical thinker can deduce. I'm concerned the influence of tiktok (foreign actors) is already too pervasive and damaging. You all should know the US by any historical metrics is at the precipice of a civil war as it is.