No government ever oppresses its citizenry by announcing that they’re setting out to oppress the citizenry.
They always, without exception, do it by first targeting someone the bulk of the populace thinks deserves it, and then only later incrementally expanding their reach.
That’s true, and that’s why so many internet censorship it spying bills are officially to counter pedophiles.
Yes.
But that was just an interim strategy, and could never serve their long-term goal, since all it could allow them to do is to institutionalize the authority to censor in cases of activity already deemed criminal.
The difference with the TikTok ban is that neither TikTok nor its users have been accused of any crime. This ban is being enacted in spite of the fact that there’s nothing criminal about the site, and that’s a new power.
I honestly don’t think it’s trying to soften people up to the government banning social media.
I guarantee that that’s exactly what it’s about.
It’s not a coincidence that all of the domestic social media overlords have already lined up to swear their fealty to Trump (and to hand him big piles of money). They know which way the wind is blowing, and they’re ensuring that they don’t get TikToked.
You’re dealing with what is likely restricted intelligence here. The reason people haven’t been backing up claims with proof of interference is because that proof isn’t declassified. It isn’t hard to understand that. Nobody was particularly up in arms about the potential TP Link ban, and that can be fixed with updated firmware.
Additionally, two things can be true at once. It can be rue that the government took Meta lobby money in exchange for this ban, and true that Tik Tok is a danger to national security. It would not be the first time the government had their cake and ate it too.
No government ever oppresses its citizenry by announcing that they’re setting out to oppress the citizenry.
They always, without exception, do it by first targeting someone the bulk of the populace thinks deserves it, and then only later incrementally expanding their reach.
That’s true, and that’s why so many internet censorship it spying bills are officially to counter pedophiles.
Banning tiktok is clearly controversial though, and I honestly don’t think it’s trying to soften people up to the government banning social media.
Yes.
But that was just an interim strategy, and could never serve their long-term goal, since all it could allow them to do is to institutionalize the authority to censor in cases of activity already deemed criminal.
The difference with the TikTok ban is that neither TikTok nor its users have been accused of any crime. This ban is being enacted in spite of the fact that there’s nothing criminal about the site, and that’s a new power.
I guarantee that that’s exactly what it’s about.
It’s not a coincidence that all of the domestic social media overlords have already lined up to swear their fealty to Trump (and to hand him big piles of money). They know which way the wind is blowing, and they’re ensuring that they don’t get TikToked.
You’re dealing with what is likely restricted intelligence here. The reason people haven’t been backing up claims with proof of interference is because that proof isn’t declassified. It isn’t hard to understand that. Nobody was particularly up in arms about the potential TP Link ban, and that can be fixed with updated firmware.
Additionally, two things can be true at once. It can be rue that the government took Meta lobby money in exchange for this ban, and true that Tik Tok is a danger to national security. It would not be the first time the government had their cake and ate it too.