What's your objective metric? The number of American websites and apps blocked in China is not one, not two, but in the thousands. Pro TikTok propaganda has convinced people too young to remember all American news/social media getting banned in China that America is the real censor here. There are multiple entities competing to "red pill" you on the reality of whatever. America is definitely the lesser evil in this comparison and it's not even close.

Civil rights aren't a zero-sum game. America must lead by example by not silencing 170 million people because of some "intelligence" that's likely less reputable than Saddam having WMDs or the Marty Rimm report.

Yes banning TikTok is a threat to democracy.

Unironically it is

Just because you say it does not make it so. Oh the irony.

How so? The law was passed by democratically elected representatives in the US government.

AIPAC (foreign lobby) money.

They also profited heavily from picking favorites. Senator Cotton mysteriously increased his net wealth by 2 million in the past year.

This is silly. Yes, there is a lot of money in American politics. No, that does not mean that any particular lobbying entity, even the AIPAC believe it or not!, controls what happens.

This isn't a battle of moneyed interests vs. penniless altruists. There is plenty of money on TikTok's side here.

If you find yourself buying into a simplistic narrative about a single organization buying the exact law they want, you've been had. It's never that simple.

In this case, it is this simple.

AIPAC wanted this.

They threaten congressmen who buck them with being primaried. They reward compliance with money. This is not behavior we see routinely from other special interests.

No, it isn't. It's obvious to anyone without their head in their ass that the current setup with the Chinese government having control of a media platform that is dominant in the US and presents content to people based on an inscrutable algorithm.

It has nothing to do with the AIPAC besides that they happened to support the "well duh" position on this.

I get that "it's the jews" is the preferred cope of people on TikTok who don't want to think about this too much, but it really has nothing to do with this. This all started years before the middle eastern omnicause du jour.