Being that artificially engaging, algorithmic and addictive is a public health hazard... But no leader is going to say that because the US is fine with the influence such apps project to other countries (among other things).
And that influence doesn't have to be directly from the U.S. govt.
So what happens when we give the government the power to start banning websites that surface content algorithmically - like say Hacker News.
I can see next we have to ban Reddit because r/cscareerquestions have a generation of computer grads thinking that if they spend months “grinding leetCode” and trying to working “for a FAANG” and failing, they feel like a failure.
Which has more influence TikTok or conservative news media that convinced people to try to overthrow the government?
Blasting propaganda over cable, radio, magazines and such is as old as America itself. Thats fine. Its part of the deal. But a device that lives in your pocket, essentially required for participating in society, with many billions spent on stopping you from disengaging is an entirely different thing. There is no good historical precedent for how psycologically manipulative that is.
Its unacceptable because China could quite probably start a civil war with such influence. Its not OK for Facebook, Google, or any government to have that unchecked power even if they just use it to sell ads or whatever.
So... I dunno where the line should be. But wherever that is, we are well past it.
If the US bans TikTok from app stores should they also ban TikTok from being viewed on the web? Do we institute a “great firewall”?
The US is not China, its not going to try and dictate how much screen time kinds should get or whatever.
Everyone knows drawing arbitrary lines in the sand is physically impossible, and we have never done anything like it before, and famously, American law has zero grey area and zero ambiguity about anything because everything is perfectly defineable in human life.
Slippery slope is a fallacy because it just pretends that decisions aren't being made at every single point on the slope. Notice how some drugs are illegal and others are less illegal? But if you ban one drug that's a slippery slope to ban all drugs!!!!
People make decisions in grey areas all the fucking time. There are judges answering those exact questions right now. That's like, their job.
Beyond that, it’s up to debate.
TikTok has some good things going for it, but it also has a sinister side. Some oversight is probably prudent. Same goes for all the public-content streamers.