Short answer: because doing a good thing for a bad reason - particularly when it establishes a bad legal precedent - is often a very bad thing in the long run.

I fucking detest TikTok for a variety of reasons (largely around the societal impact it has), but playing the national security card and then not applying it consistently (e.g. meta, twitter, insta, etc are not getting NEARLY the same level of scrutiny, despite very similar ways in which they influence society at both a national and global level) is a recipe for trouble, because that card can be (and often is) played for esoteric bullshit reasons. And I fully expect the incoming admin to use esoteric bullshit reasons for pretty much anything they possibly can.

People doing stupid challenges. People’s attention span getting lower and lower. People pretending they’re more popular than life itself because of their faux acting and lip-syncing

Sorry but this reeks of moral panic.

You shouldn’t keep TikTok, it’s trash, same as most social media. But this also shows why banning it is bad. It’s not significantly different from any of the other brain-numbing, privacy-disrespecting trash out there.

It’s not being targeted for the things that are wrong with it, it’s targeted because it’s a Chinese company. That’s the problem with the ban.

It’s the only way to stop my 65+ year old father from listening to it full blast while we’re hanging out.

1. The legal framework and argumentation used to justify the ban is worrisome and can be applied overbroadly in the suppression of speech.

2. Despite this broad possible argumentation, it has just been, and will likely continue to be, wielded in a way targeted towards suppression of speech in a targeted, nationalistic, and at times overtly racist ways. (See: “Senator, I’m Singaporean, not Chinese.”)

3. Like it or not, it’s become a large repository of internet history and online conversation. The loss of the platform is the loss of that history.

If the government had particular problems with the platform’s practices and behaviors, it would have been able to field an actual lawsuit with real charges, or levy fines. This “sell or be banned” is a clear grab for power more than any actual gesture towards protecting the people.

I know why it’s being banned or has been banned or whatever.

Maybe you don’t. It is the only non zionist media platform in the US. The zionist offers to buy it are happy to not include the algorithm behind its success. Just to let them censor it. The ban did move forward during the Oct 7th and election cycle psyops, and Tiktok did not prevent voter suppression that gives Israel 4 years to implement its final solution.

It doesn’t specifically have any strong/empire reason to be banned now. FB/Google/Musk donations to Trump are new reasons, that can enhance their properties.

If you actually knew all of this already, then you might not ask why it matters. Do you “know differently”?

When Tik Tok gets banned they can and will ban other platforms (ex: Lemmy, Mastadon, Peertube, Matrix, Signal). They will also attempt to ban secure vpns (MullvadVPN) and “encurage” censorship on major platforms.

Monopolization of social media is a bad thing. The two remaining largest social media companies have both publicly begun supporting far right narratives. (Meta and X)

So what it comes down to is really the possibility that the TikTok algorithm gets controlled. But that’s a distraction. SCOTUS already decided that corporations have first amendment rights. So even if TikTok is controlling it’s algorithm in that way, it has the right to do so. Either that or Hobby Lobby has to pay for birth control for it’s employees.

If you’re worried about national security then these billionaires publicly turning their platforms into international political machines would be a problem too. But they clearly aren’t a priority.

So what’s left other than racism and protectionism? The law is also absolutely unconstitutional because it mentions TikTok by name and that’s a big nono. The Constitution bans that and requires that all laws are enforced equally specifically because the ability to single out one entity with legislation is breathtakingly corrupt.

If you don’t like TikTok that’s fine. But you need to realize what this law is capable of. After banning TikTok by name they can also point the finger at any other social media company (and a couple other sectors) and simply declare them to be controlled by a foreign adversary. Even if it’s wholly owned by US Citizens.

They gave themselves the power to force a fire sale and you all cheered because they said TikTok.

I hate everything the US government does

The only people who support the ban are boot licking idiots who don’t know the real reason why it’s being banned in the first place. The only reason TikTok is being banned is Marky Mark and Muskrat don’t like competition to their own platforms. Platforms they are happy to censor for the US government’s own devices. TikTok isn’t doing anything other social media platforms are doing as far as data collection, they are just not based in the USA so Uncle Sam can’t step in and demand the data. The whole thing is a production of hypocrisy and goose stepping politics.

Honestly you’re wrong. Tiktok has a lot of slop but it also has a lot of the front line reporting about social movements and crimes that Reddit thinks it has or maybe used to have.

I don’t think tiktok is worse then any other large platform. All platforms have brain rot, all platforms have dumb challenges and all platforms do a lot of spying.

I’d hope this is just a freakout about someone else spying, but It feels like an excuse to start banning a whole bunch of stuff for flimsy reasons.

… and as for the spying itself, I would be far more worried about my local government getting that data then China. I don’t live anywhere near China, what are going to do? Sell me stuff? like google does?

Because it’s censorship by the goverment? also all the bad shit you mentioned can be easily found in most other social media too, should those be banned as well then?

For me it’s not about TikTok. It’s about using whatever flimsy, poorly worded law they will make to ban a platform I don’t use to open the door for further bans and possible censorship in the future. A platform should be allowed to function if it can. If it’s horribly made, or supremely unprofitable it’ll find its own way out. I don’t use it, I don’t plan on ever using it, and honestly it doesn’t affect my daily life outside of my mother in law thinking that some of the pallet crafts on there are worthwhile and me having to explain that they’ll look good for a moment and then fall apart rather quickly.

government bans social media because it makes it too easy to see the devastating results of wars that we profit off of

“Who cares about Tik Tok dances?!?!”