The Point of Banning TikTok Is to Censor Anything the Government Dislikes
These people don't care at all about spying
They’re not banning TikTok to prevent China from spying on us—the American government loves spying on us, in case you’ve been asleep the past 20 years.
All of the social media platforms either sell or eagerly give all of your data to the government in order to serve you its approved ads, control what you see, what you read, what you think, and ultimately what you are allowed to know and say online.
This has all been widely known, and public knowledge forever. A few people complain about the spying and social engineering sometimes, but there is no accountability in Democracy, so the government just keeps on spying and using social media to suppress any information or opinions it dislikes.
They are saying that China wants to spy on Americans with TikTok. This is actually stupid on several levels—one really obvious one is that TikTok isn’t any more insidious in this way than any other app. Obviously the government doesn’t care at all about surveillance per se, and are big fans of it if they are the ones doing the spying.
The only reason the American government is trying to ban TikTok is because it represents actual free speech.
TikTok is way more popular than Facebook or Instagram, especially with young people. That’s true in America, and worldwide.
One of the main reasons it’s so popular is because it doesn’t do much to curate what people make.
In today’s atmosphere of total liberal censorship on social media, you don’t really have any idea when you might be banned. The terms of service, if they are even defined, are totally irrelevant and the companies usually don’t even bother to explain why your account is being suspended or deleted.
There is no redress for any of this, because the social media oligopoly (Facebook, Instagram, Google, Youtube) has managed to arrange a system where it is both shielded from lawsuits over anything it allows on its sites (which is a special protected legal status) AND enjoys editorial discretion to delete or hide anything or anyone it dislikes (which is like being a publisher).
Very neat trick!
Supreme Court Taking Up Two Cases That Could Make or Break Free Speech Online
The purpose of censorship is to control what people think. People sometimes have trouble understanding the link from free speech to free thought, but it’s important. If we can’t talk about problems, then we can’t do anything to solve problems. In democracy, you’re not allowed to do anything about government abuses. It’s not just that you cannot vote the pr…
Because we live in a democracy, it means the government absolutely will not tolerate any criticism of its policies.
If they notice any counter-narrative messaging gaining traction, they just shut it down. This isn’t just true of social media of course. It’s the basic explanation for many recent policies implemented either by the government or in cooperation with the press, such as:
the full-court attacks on Donald Trump during the 2016 election
the illegal FISA court spying on Trump’s campaign in 2016, literally using executive and judicial privilege to do opposition research in a presidential campaign
all of the Steele Dossier/Russiagate investigation which hampered Trump’s whole tenure in office
virus law in 2020 combined with social media censorship of any criticism of the lockdowns or the government consensus on Covid
the shenanigans in state legislatures in 2020 to force the use of mass mail-in ballots and steal the election for Biden
refusing to do anything to audit the mathematically impossible and brazen election fraud in 2020
imprisoning people who protested the steal
imprisoning Douglass Mackey for tweeting a meme in 2016 about texting in your vote
using lawfare to hamstring Trump’s 2024 campaign.
All those just for starters.’
But especially with social media—it’s the de facto public square in our era for news and politics.
If you can’t speak your mind on social media—and you definitely can’t—then you do not actually have a functioning system of free speech and fair access to effect change in the government or the society.
That’s why all of the content and messaging and algorithms on YouTube and Facebook and Instagram and Google are so boring and predictable and sterile.
Nobody with any sizable audience on any of those platforms is ever going to say anything critical of the American government, because we live in a nightmare liberal dystopia where you can be life-ruined for saying anything displeasing to these mafia members.
For example, nobody with any influence can criticize America’s funding of the Israel slaughter in Palestine because they know it will result in being either banned, or delisted, or deranked, or whatever.
What happened to Kanye West in 2022 when he started asking questions about censorship and media ownership and who runs the music industry?
Were his theories disproved?
No. His theories were verified. He did have all of his social media accounts banned. He did lose all of his fashion contracts. He did lose all of his endorsements and access to concert venues. He did have his life threatened by his personal trainer.
Hence what happened to Susan Sarandon last year when she spoke up in support of Palestine. She lost her agency representation, and presumably won’t be cast in any big movies anymore.
The thing about TikTok is that it is good. It is a Chinese product that is threatening the marketshare of Meta. And both the Washington establishment and Big Tech (which are practically coterminous at this point) hate China more broadly, because it is a rising economic power that poses an urgent threat to American hegemony.
Since these people have no answer to the innovations, and certainly will not respond to any of the arguments which appear from any of their critics on TikTok, they are resorting to silly conspiracy theories about Chinese surveillance.
“China will use TikTok to attack us” could actually be dumber than believing that China needs to use weather balloons to figure out our military secrets (psst….they actually have satellites for stuff like that).
(Psstt again…China has no military aspirations against America, or anyone, and they actually just enjoy doing trade deals and making money and they have been begging Creepy Uncle Sam for decades to just leave them alone and stop trying to draw them into a pointless war.)
RT:
TikTok CEO Shou Chew has claimed that banning the social media platform in the US will endanger the livelihoods of thousands of Americans. His comments came after the House of Representatives passed a bill on Wednesday that could force TikTok’s Chinese owner, ByteDance, to sell the platform or face a nationwide ban.
How is this real?
How in the hell can congress make a law forcing a company to basically divest itself of its own property and market share, even though the product is extremely popular with the general public and there isn’t any shred of evidence that it poses any threat to the country?
And why are people tolerating this?
Are Americans really this brain-dead, as well as xenophobic, to believe this infantile gibberish about China wanting to invade America and conquer us?
Should the bill be passed by the Senate, President Joe Biden has said he will sign it into law. Responding to the House vote, Chew called the decision “disappointing” and warned of its potential consequences.
“This legislation, if signed into law, will lead to a ban of TikTok in the United States. Even the bill sponsors admit that that’s their goal. This bill gives more power to a handful of other social media companies,” Chew said in a video posted on X (formerly Twitter).
Yes. Exactly.
The purpose is to solidify even further the already tight monopoly on social media marketshare and messaging that exists in the symbiosis between Big Tech and Washington.
The entire media/government establishment is entirely captured by pro-Israel messaging and control. No one in that environment is allowed to do or say anything against it.
If you’re wondering how long a blog like mine can last on Substack…you’re asking a relevant question! (I just hope you keep on asking it to yourself after I do really get banned. Because my other blog was banned a few years ago in a similar way when I made posts criticizing BLM and virus laws, and some moron complained).
The Purpose of Censorship Is to Control What People Think
“Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.” ― United Nations, Universal Declaration of Human Rights
“Our platform matters to the small business owners who rely on TikTok to make ends meet and to the teachers who inspire millions of students to learn and to everyone who discovers and finds joy on TikTok,” he added.
“You will take billions of dollars out of the pockets of creators in small businesses. You will put more than 300,000 American jobs at risk.”
Joe Biden could not possibly care less about creators or small businesses.
He supported all of the lockdowns (and related social media censorship) during the pandemic that murdered almost all small business in the country. It was a mass wealth transfer into the hands of Amazon, Netflix, Google and the other Big Tech giants.
Well what the hell do you think this anti-competitive TikTok ban is, other than another giant transfer of both wealth and influence from a Chinese company to the government and its approved minions at Meta?
I’m not really talking about X/Twitter and Elon Musk in this context for the reason that although Elon initially acted like he was going to restore free speech, he has basically completely failed at that now. He just does whatever he’s told to do on X by the Anti-Defamation League (anti-free-speech mafia).
Chew signaled that TikTok will exercise its “legal rights” to prevent a ban, and urged users to support its efforts.
“I encourage you to keep sharing your stories, share them with your friends, share them with a family, share them with the senators, protect your constitutional rights, make your voices heard,” he stated.
We need to see this bill go down in flames.
We need to see TikTok stay up and active in America.
My support of TikTok has nothing to do with the general political outlook of its primary user base, which is presumably very liberal. The fact is that almost all of social media content is very liberal.
The point is that conservatives deserve free speech too.
The government always destroys free speech, because it encourages ordered liberty—the opposite outcome of what tyranny craves.
My support for TikTok also has nothing to do with shilling for China. I know nothing about China, nor am I personally inclined one way or another about them as a nation.
One thing I do know: no Chinaman ever called me a MAGA Terrorist.
Free TikTok!