Do people believe that the US government's control over Instagram/Twitter/whatever are similar to the level of control China's government has over TikTok?
I'm not that educated on the subject (I think most people who are making claims either way about this aren't), but all my priors indicate to me that China's government collects data from and controls content (to be shown only to the western populace) in TikTok much more than the US government with US social media companies.
I understand the comparison, but I think the magnitude of the problem is very likely to be much higher with TikTok.
I don’t think US government controls social media like china, but after the constant news about all the social media CEO’s hanging out with the president I am not surprised many people start to get a feeling that something is up.
> Do people believe that the US government's control over Instagram/Twitter/whatever are similar to the level of control China's government has over TikTok?
Control comes in different flavors. Is the US government covertly and directly compelling corporations like they did during Snowden era? Probably less today if I were to guess, and certainly less than China.
I think today the threat is not government overreach but rather that the tech industry and government have so many shared interests and back-channels that coercion is no longer needed, and probably the big ones would throw hissy fits if so. Instead, I think it’s a mutual back-scratching operation. During covid, the infrastructure was laid out, with corporations running the information errands. I think both sides found that to be much more comfortable, and yes I do believe that became the prevailing MO afterwards.
Race riots? Palestine protests? Luigi support, and similar current uncomfortable issues transcending culture war daily jabs? ”Lightly suppressing” such speech has corp-govt incentive alignment, and frankly might be necessary to keep people in check given the growing inequalities and dissent. Any large uncontrolled social media operation is a risk, even without amplifying or suppressing anything inorganically and deliberately.
I'm not that educated on the subject (I think most people who are making claims either way about this aren't), but all my priors indicate to me that China's government collects data from and controls content (to be shown only to the western populace) in TikTok much more than the US government with US social media companies.
I understand the comparison, but I think the magnitude of the problem is very likely to be much higher with TikTok.