[observationist]

The West can be fraught with flaws and weaknesses and there exist bad actors taking advantage of this. This doesn't excuse the active and malicious exploitation of those flaws and weaknesses by other nations, and it doesn't somehow make continuing with the situation the logical outcome.

TikTok is worse than fentanyl. Merely by using it, you're making it better at destroying time, exploiting minds like yours, and becoming more effective at the malignant uses to which it is put, whether by China, trolls, or marketing departments.

YouTube isn't much better. We need regulation banning the adtech global surveillance system from harvesting data, and strict regulation limiting what can be done with data that is voluntarily shared, and how that data is secured and discarded. We've been dealing with terrible outcomes from the status quo for more than ten years; it's past time to fix it.

If a company can't abide by the regulation, either due to scaling compliance or technological dependency on protected data, then the company should fail.

With a sane system, the doom spiral of hyperpersuasion content factories tailoring attention sinks to individuals wouldn't be possible.