TikTok is a black box and so it is not really possible for people on the outside to know what it does behind the scenes. The lack of transparency and the ties to the CCP are indeed a national security threat to other countries. I recall reading analysis that showed very skewed representation of different keywords on TikTok compared to other platforms. I have trouble believing that this is actually organic and balanced. I think it is much more likely that it is a result of manipulation - how TikTok increases or reduces certain views. China has a tool that’s perfect to create political chaos in rival countries - I doubt they would pass up the opportunity to abuse it. I also find it suspicious that ByteDance would rather shut down TikTok than allow its sale (<a href="https://www.reuters.com/technology/bytedance-prefers-tiktok-shutdown-us-if-legal-options-fail-sources-say-2024-04-25/" rel="nofollow">https://www.reuters.com/technology/bytedance-prefers-tiktok-...</a>).<p>Let’s also not forget - China does not allow American social media to operate in their country. When trade is allowed, access to their market is highly controlled - for example Tesla being forced to use Baidu for mapping. TikTok can and should be banned on the grounds of this free trade issue, leaving aside privacy and national security problems.
I guess his implication is that TikTok is intentionally distorting opinion. But how do we know public opinion on TikTok isn’t what the baseline would be, and the rest of US public opinion isn’t the one being intentionally influenced?<p>I am for the divestiture (US media should be controlled by Americans) but it does raise questions.
This is old news - <a href="https://www.voanews.com/a/efforts-by-us-to-crack-down-on-tiktok-spark-backlash-against-israel/7535577.html" rel="nofollow">https://www.voanews.com/a/efforts-by-us-to-crack-down-on-tik...</a><p>Has to be seen in larger context of the Attention Wars. There is now more content then eyeballs by a massive margin. The UN report on the Attention Economy quotes a study that says less than 0.5% of content produced is being consumed by a human.<p>In such a abnormal state of surplus Content, how does anyone get noticed?<p>There are just 2 options -<p>1. Spend more on ads.
(This is something all politicians know cause the winner of every single American Presidential Election is the candidate who spent more on Ads on Broadcast Media. Atleast up until Trump+Zuckerbergs algos allowed a different path to Attention Capture. The algos were quickly rectified. See Twitter Files from Matt Taibbi. So when the elites talk about democracy and tell you to vote ask them to pay you instead of the lobbyists, politicians and zuck)<p>2. Control what the Platforms do. If the platforms dont bend make them. See Modi in India.<p>Bigger question than Tik Tok bans is why are we producing so much Content? If there are more producers than consumers. And the producers are causing every growing content growth, and all locked in an arms race for non growing attention what is the Purpose of such a system?
<i>Some wonder why there was such overwhelming support for us to shut down potentially TikTok or other entities of that nature. If you look at the postings on TikTok and the number of mentions of Palestinians relative to other social media sites, it’s overwhelmingly so among TikTok broadcasts. So I’d note that’s of real interest, and the President will get the chance to make action in that regard</i>