Tik Tok: Out with Chinese influence in with the MAGA

[theophrastus]

Steve Mnuchin intends to buy Tic Tok with a little help from his friends.

Thursday, March 14, 2024 at 6:44:27a PDT

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ST CHARLES, MO - NOVEMBER 29: Missouri Attorney General and U.S. Senate candidate Josh Hawley (L-R), Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, and Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens listen to U.S. President Donald Trump during a rally at the St. Charles Convention Center on November 29, 2017 in St. Charles, Missouri. Trump promoted the GOP tax reform plan during the speech.

Former Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin wants to snap up Tic Tok after the US House overwhelmingly banned the social media platform. This is what I was worried about a Tic Tok clusterfuck, pissing off the kids and opening the platform to another right-wing grifting billionaire to spread disinformation and fascist talking points.

Specific pursuit of tik-tok makes so little sense, strategically or otherwise. The Chinese could just buy “the intelligence” they’re gaining from any of the other data collecting social platforms. And yet i’ve been ‘yelled’ at (online) that (you @#$! you) it isn’t the info going into Xi’s hands, it’s agitprop from China which is being posted. Ok, but in that regard, Xitter should be ignored as an innocent?? If it’s a political persuasion you’re attempting to tamp down, then welcome to the social media jungle. And practically, if you want to piss off the younger voters to not voting at all, then yes, just take it away from the young ones and join with the MAGA crowd who clearly just want to use it for their own malign purposes. -sigh-

[Otherbrother]

@theophrastus

Specific pursuit of tik-tok makes so little sense, strategically or otherwise.

I’m not on TikTok and have no strong opinions on whether they are a potential national security risk or are any more or less harmful than other forms of Social Media. But I’m a little surprised that the Anti-China crowd hasn’t tried positioning this ban as a simple matter of reciprocity for the many tech companies that China has banned within their country. For example, China has banned use of Facebook and Twitter and Gmail and Google and YouTube and Instagram and Bloomberg and the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal and WhatsApp and Reddit and LinkedIn and Wikipedia and (checks notes…) TikTok within their borders.