[chrisjc]

Why would they ban those kinds of videos. I'm sure we wouldn't be having this debate if they did, because TikTok would have already been shut down in the US and many other countries. And obviously the content makers would just use the platform replacing TikTok to pick up where they left off. The reasons put forth for banning TikTok extend far beyond censorship.

Moreover, having observability into who and what are publishing such content arguably provides more value than censorship. Now you know who to watch, who/where/when they are, who their friends/family/associates/audiance are, and build out models and networks to provide even better overall observability and predictability over what you might see as a threat.