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Comment by mm321 | Hacker News Reader

that's a slippery slope. The Russian government is also justifying all of its censorship with foreign interference (this line of argument works with the Russian public, just to note), take care!

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I'm less certain that it's a slippery slope than it is a fine line. The government does not appear to have a problem with the speech occurring on TikTok. It is not trying to apply censorship or forcing the app to close down. It tried to force it to be sold away from its Chinese ownership. It tried to mitigate the possibility that a foreign adversary can use the app as a tool for its own interests. Had TikTok divested itself instead of shutting itself down the dancing would have continued on.

the state as such consists of many entities, all these entities are not all pulling into the same direction.

divesting was never a real option, why would you spawn a US-based competitor - and it would cut you off from all the global content? just never a real good option

> this line of argument works with the Russian public, just to note

To a degree... I'd say western sanctions targeting the population as a whole were at least as effective in supporting the autocracy.

Hard to tell if the sanctions are targeted at the population or at the military industrial complex of Russia. I am not an expert in these matters.

When you can't use your credit card abroad or be paid for your work from there I thinks it's pretty clear.

Indeed. It's the road to open government censorship. There is no grey area when it comes to freedom of speech.

Everything's a slippery slope.

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