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Comment by nemothekid | Hacker News Reader

The problem with the TikTok ban is that it is now, as a US citizen, it is exceptionally more difficult to consume content that is not filtered by US hegemony. The Israel/Palestine conflict was an eye opener because on every other platform, pro-palestine content is actively suppressed.

It's also strange that Americans are uniquely afforded this privilege and many consider it a natural right, but don't consider that their relationship with TikTok is same relationship the rest of world has with Meta. French citizens, despite the GDPR, have no recourse for accountability when it comes the US government.

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I can't tell if this is serious or not. Do Americans know there are sources of information other than social media apps?

Just watch Al Jazeera on Youtube if you want the Palestinian side.

I don’t think the problem is individual choose, but rather public exposure. Not everyone watches Al-Jazeera or Democracy Now! but the people that do want to share what they learned, and do so on social media where the content gets extra public exposure. With the banning of TikTok, avenues for expanding pro-palestinian content will diminish, even though individual choose remains (mostly) the same.

Totally agree and that's why X and TikTok are so precious when the US gov's propaganda is omnipresent on all other social networks (not even talking about traditional media...)

The failure of anti-israel suppression of speech on Tiktok is the main driver for this bill. Yet, everyone keeps saying it is a China problem. it was bundled with a war spending bill. That says loads about the importance and burial of information this carries.

1000x this, I'm not sure why more people do not see that when it's pretty obvious. People that actually use TikTok know what I mean, Israel narration lost and videos from Palestine reporting what's going on were super popular. Now there are pro Palestinian protests at campuses around US against US Israel policy and US government do not like that. TikTok was IMO the main driver of showing what's going in Gaza.

I bet the uni protests were the catalyst behind the passage of the bill

I don't really get this point; I see pro-Palestinian stuff on other networks CONSTANTLY. I also see information that is incredibly incorrect about Palestine on Tiktok (and others) all the time, like Hamas wasn't targeting civilians etc (obvious lie.) I also see pro-Israel stuff that is incorrect all the time across Tiktok, etc. It's the nature of the beast.

I think people that have this view are pretty new to the internet in general. It's no surprise it's a popular belief with Gen-Z, thinking somehow their "filter bubble" is unique in any way or that they have escaped the filter bubble and stumbled upon "the truth." Complete nonsense. You're hooked into whatever algorithm makes you engage more, that's the whole point of this. To make money from you. You think you're special because you got on a pro-Palestine feed on Tiktok? Hilariously naive.

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