ALL of these sorts of social media programs are terrifyingly-capable spying platforms. It'd be weird if we didn't regard one controlled by a foreign adversary as a threat. I think the domestic ones are, too—but they feed info to US law enforcement and intelligence and are making lots of money, so we can't crack down on those, I guess.

It definitely sounds like that. But to me this feels more like 'testing the waters' to see if the argument sticks with the American people. I don't think it will, because they provided even a hint of a smoking gun.

Eventually, I can see these hearings continue, but the line of argument will change to protecting American jobs, especially if Meta's ad revenues fall.

McCarthyism was primarily a political thing by politicians.

The FBI chief being discussed here, Wray, is a political appointment but not an elected politician so hopefully the appointment shields them from politics. Nevermind that the DoJ tries pretty hard to be independent of the President. But beyond that, this particular chief was appointed during the previous administration of a different party. And has served in both party's administrations.

I have no position on TikTok, but Wray saying this is not really comparable to McCarthy.