I want to use TikTok as it exists today. Why should that right be taken away from me by the US government? This is going to have major political backlash from the millions of people happy with TikTok if they manage to pass it.
National security, hysteria, anything in between. The government is the people. We can agree to deny ourselves anything for any reason.
From what I've read I'd agree that TikTok should be more independent than it is from its current parent company. And other measures too, like some time limits on users under 18.
The Israel-Palestine conflict is playing a huge part. Israel has had a hard time controlling the narrative on Tiktok as organic support has stemmed from videos from Gaza. Especially amoung teens.
Israel has even gone to lengths to purchase advertisement slots on major platforms showing high budget propaganada. Once it's under US ownership they wll no longer have this issue.
To back this up, here is a link to a leaked audio recording, showing the head of the ADL complaining that TikTok was (in his view) responsible for Israel's usual propaganda not gaining traction anymore:
A lot of the claims in the videos were later denounced by the Israeli government i.e. Hamas beheaded 40 babies etc. To me theres plenty of signs towards a strong misinformation campaign. Unashamingly.
Since my comment, I have also found some supporting evidence. My God, the Anglo-Saxons are getting nervous about their land based aircraft carrier in the near east.
How will this discontent manifest itself? It feels like voter apathy is widespread[1], so it would be amazing to me if any politican feels that this is the issue that causes TikTok voters to mobilize no matter what side of the aisle you're on.
