[klabb3]

This is the best point I’ve read about this. I don’t think TikTok should be seen as a facilitator of free speech, because it has no obligations to allow it. It’s a private enterprise with their own community guidelines censorship, but most importantly they control the ”algorithm”. No matter how much these platforms claim to be town squares, they are absolutely not and thus serve no essential speech function. If they did, content would not require installing spyware to see. (In my opinion secret mandatory engagement algorithms don’t deserve even section 230 protections).

On the other hand, it doesn’t sit right with me that ”China scary” is enough to outright block whoever is successful in the surveillance capitalist game invented in the US. It screams of political hit job for hire by the tech oligarchs. It’s like banning Taco Bell for health reasons and leaving McDonalds alone. If the modern US was not a plutocracy, this would have been an opportunity for legislators to do real harm reduction and steer predatory mega-corps in a better direction.