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Comment by MengerSponge | Hacker News Reader

Remember how the USSR used Jim Crow to criticize America and degrade the US's international standing? That Soviet messaging was clearly self-serving, but it doesn't make America's behavior that creating the opening any less reprehensible.

Same deal here.

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And it's not like there aren't dozens of equally brain-rot apps made my US and EU based companies that people would love to see banned. The only one, out of SHEER COINCIDENCE I'M SUUUURE, actually on the chopping block is the one that promotes a lot of pro-Gaza content.

Like I'm sorry, there is just no debate to be had here. Israel is committing a genocide, confirmed by the UN, recognized by anyone who looks at what's going on there with an even remotely objective eye, and the only social platform on which that message is getting out is facing legal scrutiny in the entire West is TikTok. This doesn't even require a conspiracy board, it's literally three red strings between TikTok, Israel, and the US. Despite worldwide propaganda efforts on the part of every corporate media in existence all screaming that the genocide isn't a genocide, a full 25% of people according to a poll I saw are fully convinced the genocide Israel is committing is in fact a genocide.

This would be fucking pathetic if not for the fact that every organized world entity involved in this utter sham was so incredibly powerful and their influence wasn't borderline inescapable.

The initial TikTok ban bill was introduced in January 25, 2023, before the Oct 7 attacks.

I don't think we can trust TikTok to be a defender of global human rights. China doesn't have a great record on this, with Muslim minorities in particular. The furor over Uyghurs in China has died down due to China's strong international influence but that doesn't mean China is respecting Uyghurs human rights.

I don't know if TikTok is algorithmically pushing anti-Israel content/genocide-witnessing content. Although if you told me Zuck and Musk were suppressing genocide-witnessing content I'd buy it.

Of course it's opportunistic of China to criticize the West's supply of bombs to drop on civilians that enable said genocide. But how can the West claim to be upholding the values that say "Uyghur genocide is wrong" while being quiet about the Gazan genocide...

Feel free to argue about semantics and meaning of the G word instead of addressing the death of the rules-based International order.

The west is not quiet about Gaza by any measure. I live in the west and hear about it a lot. You practically can't escape reports. At this point I'd say it reflects your media diet if you aren't hearing about it.

In 2023 Azerbaijan ethnically cleansed Nagorno-Karabakh of ethnic Armenians[1]. IMO that is a better example of human rights violations that the west has been silent about. But that happened at the end of September 2023, and folks were more interested in talking about IP.

But my point is you will not hear about Uyghurs on TikTok, and that is a part of why a Chinese controlled media company should not be trusted. To say that you don't have to accept anything about the US or its media companies.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Expulsion_of_Nagorno-Karabakh_...

> The west is not quiet

Ah, a semantic misunderstanding. By "The West" I mean the governments. Biden had red lines that Netanyahu walked all over. Germany still have their 80 years old guilt and this got exploited by Netanyahu. Etc, etc. There are pockets of protests by governments, but on the whole the Western bureaucracy kept supporting the genocide...

That might matter more if the the proposal was to hand over TikTok to the US government, but that's not what people are asking. People are asking for media not controlled by the CCP.

Maybe TikTok is controlled by people who are close to CCP leadership... oh that's bad, so now the US government wants to force its sale so it's controlled by people like Larry Ellison, known to be close to Trump.

Wowwww, what a world of difference. /S

Funny you keep picking on nits as if these assholes aren't 2 sides of the same coin. At least admit that you prefer your fascism Trump-branded, at least the alphabet is still legible compared to Chinese Communist fascism.

China is not fascist, communism ands fascism are opposed concepts and mortal enemies. Please do some reading.

What does China have to do with Israel? Israel killed so many children in Ghaza. And Journalists. It is the greatest enemy of the west, for its values (stealing land, no respect for human life or property) is alien to what Voltaire described as western traits (and voltaire by the way regarded both China and Jews in Europe as antithetical to the west, though more out of sinophobia and antisemitism). No impartial observer can look at Israel and see a western nation. I do not know of any country (Russia and Iran included) who has starved a population and committed rape while defending it. Vile people.

You can stop believing in conspiracy theories and that the Jews are behind it all anytime. It will vastly improve your mood.

It is neither a conspiracy nor about any Jews, beyond those at the seats of power in Israel. It is the Global North once again fucking with the Global South, for some combination of resources, money, power, or simply because they can and starting forever wars about nothing is a great way to shovel cash into the military industrial complex. That's no conspiracy theory it's simply neo-Colonialism as a concept and it's been at work for longer than my parents have been alive.

I don't speculate on their motivations, I'm not interested. I rarely use the word evil, but I think this qualifies.

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