[ceejayoz]

Pretending large groups of humans can't possibly be influenced to do things is lunacy.

We do weird things in crowds even without intentional propaganda at play. https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.add8091

[bluefishinit]

That's not a "botnet" though, advertising does the same thing. We don't call the people buying things they've been marketed a "botnet".

[ambicapter]

There's definitely areas of advertising that are banned/controlled so that comparison seems more damning than beneficial (e.g. alcohol to minors, medication in any country other than the US

[ceejayoz]

It needn't be a perfect comparison to be a useful one.

[bluefishinit]

It's not useful though. I actually think it's very cool that TikTok got a bunch of young people to contact their representatives. If this ban goes through, the political blowback is going to be extreme. It will be like the Streisand effect x100,000,000.

[stale2002]

> If this ban goes through, the political blowback is going to be extreme.

Its not a ban. Whats going to happen is that tiktok will divest.

Kids will continue to have their social media.

[bluefishinit]

> What’s more, divestiture would require Beijing’s approval. Last year, the Chinese government said it opposed a forced sale.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets/house-passes-tiktok-...

[stale2002]

If tiktok wants to leave the US, that would be their decision.

Blame them for not following the law.

That's no different from anyone else deciding to just leave the app store, or the USA, because they don't want to pay taxes or something.

Companies stop doing business in certain countries for all sorts of reasons.

[ceejayoz]

> I actually think it's very cool that TikTok got a bunch of young people to contact their representatives.

I don't think that's the concern.

[butlike]

Just capitalism slaves :P