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Can’t say I’m surprised, but I will reiterate what others have already written. This bill targeting one specific social media company does little more than affirm the government’s ability to single-handedly legislate a business out of existence and maybe provide some short term benefit against foreign influences, which can simply turn their efforts to other platforms.

If we really cared about protecting Americans, we’d pass consumer protection laws. But we don’t do that. In fact, we have worked to erode these laws for decades.

This smells more like an excuse to brutally murder the competition for the benefit of homegrown social media. Can’t we call a spade a spade, where there’s money to be made?

I have never visited TikTok and look down on those who use it. However, I think this bill is stupid. It's reactionary at best. This does nothing at all to address the general malaise predated on the entire world by social media. There should instead be tighter restrictions on social media or even phone use by minors. Why are we preventing minors from harming themselves by smoking or drinking, with pretty strict laws, but it's totally fucking FINE to let them be psychologically manipulated by corporations with no agenda other than profit? I am so disgusted.

Things that matter? No Shit that makes lives better? No Conspiracy bullshit? Let’s go!

I used tiktok once in my life when it first blew up and i was younger and after that i decided not to use it anymore. I think everyone using it is selling data to get brainwashed. BUT, i think banning a service because its foreign is a very bad idea and sets a bad example. Tiktok wasnt banned for spying. It was banned because it spies for another country. All social media spies. Thats the thing that should change. If social media companies cant spy that means not only tiktok but facebook and the rest would be also banned.

Ffs! This bullshit is pure demagoguery and corruption!

It's an election year, so pretending to care about privacy rights and national security (even though they're doing fuck all about American companies spying, including for oppressive regimes such as those of Putin, Modi, Netanyahu and MBS) while being "tough on China" is a demagogue jackpot.

Meanwhile, the ACTUAL reasons are thus:

1: With Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and YouTube heavily censoring criticism of the Israeli apartheid regime, TikTok is the main social media outlet for pro-palestinian and anti-genocide activism. AIPAC and other reliable sources for legal bribes don't like that.

2: In the event of a sale, the purchaser is likely to be an oligarch that also bribes American politicians and will do so even more afterwards.

Soon to be bought by US interests who will continue to use it to do all the nasty things the CCP is doing now.

Guess we'll see how ineffective such legislation really is.

This isn't about data privacy or protection at all. This is a bad look. I think Biden is throwing the election purpose at this point.

Nice, so congress can tell any company to get fucked and sell to the highest bidder? So much for free market republicans.

China will just find another company to buy our data from, because as it turns out, the problem isn't just TikTok, it's the fact the it's legal for companies (foreign and domestic) to sell and exchange our data in the first place. TikTok will still collect the same data, and instead of it going straight to China, it'll go to a rich white fuck first and they'll be the ones to sell it to China instead.

And if the problem is the fact that it's addictive, well, we have plenty of our own home grown addictions for people to sink their time into. You don't see congress telling those companies to get sold to a new owner.