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Comment by Mizoguchi | Hacker News Reader

The recent debate about the threat of TikTok has nothing to do with harming children.

We are taking about an app owned by a corporation controlled by the CCP which is running on half of the phones in the US.

In that context, comparing Bytedance to Apple, Google, Amazon and Meta is beyond ridiculous.

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It has everything to do with children. The reason it's bad that an app controlled indirectly by the CCP is running on half the phones is not just because of 20th century concerns like "spying" and "espionage". It's because it affords the CCP direct control over a huge chunk of the attention and cultural zeitgeist of the US population. It's not exaggerating to call it a memetic weapon. It's not the only technological memetic weapon - the Facebook ads used by Cambridge Analytica also qualify - but it's the most successful one deployed internationally to date. That anyone has noticed, anyway.

Some have drawn parallels between TikTok and the opium wars. TikTok is 21st century opium. This is payback.

> Some have drawn parallels between TikTok and the opium wars. TikTok is 21st century opium. This is payback.

IMO, that would be fentanyl.

Not sure why people refuse to see how dysfunctional and toxic culture has gotten targeting kids and young adults.

Everything is blatantly racist, misandrist, misogynistic, anti marriage, anti family, pro sexual deviancy, anti female, pro violence, sexualising minors, etc. And then it's all packaged neatly and presented in little culture pills with catchy music and an enticing music video that confuses kids.

And then to top it all off, it's then protected from criticism using whatever means available.

And from outside USA it really makes one wonder. If they fear single app so much. Should we for example in Europe fear any app from outside, specially from USA?

The EU has tackled the big players in this question in order to come to agreements that respect Europeans rights. This has worked to some capacity because we're able to communicate issues with one another and trust eachother's judicial systems.

I'm not sure if the same can be done with authoritative governments. I think that's where the problem lies.

Is data on European citizens held by US companies subject to national security letters?

How is it "beyond ridiculous" those seem like substantially the same thing to me.

It's not controlled by the CPC any more than Meta or Alphabet are controlled by the FBI/NSA/CIA, etc.

The US actually has to lie about the real reason to ban TikTok because if they told the truth the WTO would be on their ass.

It's naked unabashed protectionism.

Even if it is protectionism, given that China engages in the same protectionism on their end, this seems like pretty reasonable policy.

Edit: Changed "It definitely is protectionism, but" to "Even if it is protectionism," since I can't say I truly know the truth of that statement.

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