Hmm... From a business PoV, TikTok letting the US govt do all the moderation might be an <i>excellent</i> deal. All the expenses, headaches, controversies, legal battles, political sh*t, threatening or vile stuff that sneaks through, moderators PTSD'ed from daily exposure to horrible images - all of that is now on the US govt's dime and reputation.<p>And if the US govt controls all that stuff <i>for content appearing in the US</i>, then it can't easily argue if the Chinese govt has similar control for what appears in China, or ...
This article downplays the very real risks of allowing TikTok to operate in the US without significant congressional oversight.<p>Chinese companies operate as effective extensions of the Chinese government, which is to say that Xi can at any time choose to do anything he wants with TikTok users in the US with no oversight whatsoever. The CEOs of Chinese companies say this is not true, but they are lying. If they told the truth, they and their families would simply disappear. They so far have not flexed this power significantly, but if a conflict with China were to occur it's extremely naive to think Xi would not use this power unilaterally and very effectively to destabilize the US.<p>Content on TikTok can cause serious real world harm - there are numerous examples, like the Kia carjacking trend, students coordinating to harass teachers & mass group organizing to create chaos in the US. These are only a tiny fraction of what China could do if they wanted to.<p>If these types of things were happening on Facebook to where the US govt felt that national security was at risk, Mark Zuckerberg and his leadership team can be hauled in front of Congress and held to account. If they broke the law (or even if they didn't), they can strip them of their position, confiscate their property and fortunes and throw them in jail. This is good - it keeps everyone in line.<p>The same cannot be said of TikTok - Xi is obviously not going to show up to the congressional summons or cooperate.<p>The best analogy I can think of is this:<p>At the height of the cold war, if Russia came along and said "yeah we're going to install TV sets in the home of every American and broadcast anything we want" the US government would laugh them out of the room. Yet that's exactly what's been allowed to happen with TikTok, but on an even more severe scale.<p>While I am justifiably wary of any govt having undue influence on content, the US govt needs to have full jurisdiction over any foreign owned property with that level of reach in the US. Allowing it to continue is extremely unwise and both Trump and Biden administrations see the risk.