Is this supposed to be China only or should the rest of the world also be suspicious and ban e.g. Meta services especially since they don't have any competing service that is popular in the US?

Non allied nations should absolutely ban US apps. Additionally, all government devices should have strict security features. It would be wise to also protect certain places from all electronic monitoring.

Oh but we are allies! The USA will never ever use the information gathered on allies for their own profit!

Also Twitter (Trump/Musk) would never push for regime changes in Europe.

(For anyone out of the loop, see https://www.dw.com/en/elon-musk-backs-far-right-afd-in-contr...)

Stop. This is stupid. People are allowed to have opinions on politics in other countries. Every other country in the world sure as hell isn’t shy about opining on US elections. Then you want to act all indignant if the US opines on your elections? Fuck off.

The thing is that Elon Musk is not just some guy with an opinion. He's some guy who has an opinion and owns a major social media platform where he tweaks the algorithm to serve his own purposes, similar to what TikTok is being accused of.

Donald Trump also created his own media platform. It's a pillar of the cult. Without them, they can't keep people fearful and misinformed.

“Everyone who has a media platform does it to keep people fearful and misinformed”. What does this tell you about previous media platforms?

In democracies the power of government and media are supposed to be different branches of the system. When this is violated it's considered a threat to democracy. Like in Italy Berlusconi's media empire, etc.

lmao so the past 8 years where the media was a propaganda org for the DNC was what exactly?

This is an odd statement. GOP was in power from 2016-2020. People confuse entertainment and social media with news sources. Nearly anyone can pay to advertise with traditional or social media.

I think you're trying to describe Twitter and the other "conservative" media sources? These are for entertainment, but traditionally would advertise whoever paid them. Now the companies have been purchased or created to spread misinformation.

I don't think that's true. For instance, Meta will spread whatever information it's legally allowed to if you pay them.

Yeah, and a lot of people opining on US elections had media platforms of their own, or were heads of state or otherwise influential.

Too bad. Sucks that you got beat at your own game.

I was talking about what agendas the powers that control the TikTok/Twitter/Meta might have, not (only) protesting the opinion.

And in this case they are known to be exceptionally ruthless and part of Trump's administration.

I presume meta is banned in China.

> Meta services especially since they don't have any competing service that is popular in the US

Meta won't tinker with the algorithm to push propaganda. TikTok will.

Excuse me, what? They do it all the time. Vaccines and Israel's genocide are just the tip of the iceberg of the propaganda machine broadcast through Meta's services. Make no mistake, this is not about China.

TikTok had a huge negative impact on special interest groups that want to continue to allow the holocaust of our days to continue happening and the genocidal state to continue to behave with impunity.

The U.S. is already infiltrated by people working for foreign interests. The thing is, it's not infiltrated by China's or Russia's operatives.

One is a "bastion of democracy", and another is the "center of human rights violation".

Would you not expect the rules to be different?

If it's only about reciprocity and global hegemony, well then...

Bytedance chose this by not doing as requested.

I wouldn't refer to USA as very democratic or China as a center of human rights violation.

If there is no blanket ban, there would have to be many laws, rules, regulations and restrictions prohibiting the software from government buildings, etc.

In addition to the data points: contacts, location, audio, video, etc, malicious actors can learn a lot through deduction. That's before any sort of manipulation.

Are you saying the United States is a bastion of democracy? It's not even classified as a full democracy. The list of full democracies are Canada, Austria, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Iceland, Ireland, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom, Costa Rica, Uruguay, Australia, Japan, New Zealand, South Korea, Taiwan, and Mauritius.

United States is classified as a flawed democracy. Partly because sweeping decisions like this one are made by Supreme Court Justices who nobody voted for and who hold their position for life.

Or maybe that's what you meant and you were being sarcastic with the quotation marks around "bastion of democracy"?

In almost every country, the President or the Parliament selects Supreme Court Justices. In some countries, the President picks x, and the Parliament picks y. They don't have terms. Direct democracy does not make sense when selecting justices.

I am not making a statement, mostly portraying the official stance from the USA government that has just had their decision to ban TikTok come into effect.

As in, due to their official stance, we should not expect reciprocity at all.

But you did pique my curiosity, where did you get that list of "full democracies"?

Their source is the “The Economist Democracy Index” [1]

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Economist_Democracy_Index

Canada has a king.

So?

A number of democratic countries have residual symbolic figureheads.

In Canada all laws the legislature passes have to be approved by the monarch or the monarch's representative.

In Canada the monarch is the judicial branch. Ministers are appointed and dismissed by the monarch. Parliament can be adjourned by the monarch.

Again, so?

When was they last time these things weren't rubber stamped?

What do you suppose would happen should the symbolic monarch not rubber stamp procedure?

Why is it that Canada, et al are regarded in the world as "full democracies" whereas the US is ramked a bit lower as a "flawed democracy"?

( See: peer comment with wikipedia link to democratic rankings )

Said 'bastion of democracy' is a flawd democracy [1] who voted in a president who allegedly (facepalm) initiated a coup and got away with it. Also, a convicted criminal.

You could say it is a bastion of liberty but I'm from Europe and women here have reasonable abortion and sexuality rights.

[1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Economist_Democracy_Inde...

Now do China.

Heh, agreed. But the derailing of USA is extremely worrying to me (the trend is downward), whereas with China it is a given I accepted.

It may be a "bastion of democracy" but that says nothing about how it interferes with other countries. Democracy is only for citizens anyway.

>If Chinese apps are allowed, then China has a big advantage over USA

Historically speaking the biggest threat by far to the lives and livelihood of US citizens is the US government and corporate elite. Giving them more power to control what information the population can access is much more dangerous to the average American than giving the Chinese government some data.