Meet the Lonely New York Progressive Defending TikTok

[brooklynite]

New York Times

Of TikTok’s 150 million American users, there may be none more valuable to the embattled platform right now than Representative Jamaal Bowman of New York.

A backbench Democrat, Mr. Bowman commands neither TikTok’s largest following (he has about 159,000 fans) nor exceptional legislative clout. But in recent days, he has gone where almost no one else on Capitol Hill would, appointing himself the platform’s unofficial defender in face of a bipartisan race to target what President Biden sees as a national security threat.

“Why the hell are we whipping ourselves into a hysteria to scapegoat TikTok?” Mr. Bowman asked in a telephone interview as he traveled by train to Washington on Wednesday.

Hours later, he held a news conference outside the House touting the platform’s virtues, alongside dozens of influencers brought in by TikTok for a day of lobbying ahead of Thursday’s congressional hearing with its chief executive. Only two other Democrats attended, while some of the congressman’s most outspoken allies declined to weigh in, like Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a fellow member of the group of left-leaning lawmakers known as the squad.

[Hortensis]

1. At least several other nations have or are working to ban TikTok.

Seriously, what evidence does Bowman have to disprove information developed by the intelligence services of various advanced nations that TikTok is an internet warfare asset of the People's Republic of China?

My problem with his behavior is that he knows the truth.

Yes, he fundraises off oppositional behaviors just as those on the MAGA side do. But wrong issue. TikTok is the only social media giant under the control of a hostile state, and I don't want PRC free to tap directly into my grandchildren's heads. The contention that they all should be regulated is a separate issue.

“Anyone defending TikTok is either too caught up in being a social media celebrity or they’ve been brainwashed by the Chinese government’s propaganda,” said Representative Josh Gottheimer, a moderate New Jersey Democrat in favor of banning the app or forcing its sale. “Both put our national security at risk.”

It's the first one, of course. Repetitive displays of opposing the actions of the Democratic Party have become indispensable, and apparently irresistible, fundraisers for oppositional factions. But find something else.

[I_UndergroundPanther]

2. Not a peep

About the real propaganda outlets faux,newsmax,oan,twitter,facebook

And both bezos and zuckerberg have already sold private information to china on the information market.

Faux news is responsible for a real danger to america.

We have had tik tok on our phones for years and there is a problem all of a sudden?

This bullshit is because facebook and twitter are losing customers like crazy.
And of course the rich here cannot control the narrative over at tik tok.

Its all about control over conversations people want to have and the promotion of right wing assholes and skewed censorship and american propaganda,and sore loser incompetent rich pigs who make shitty platforms who cant handle real competition..

[pinkstarburst]

4. Absolutely agree

This whole witch hunt is because FB and Twitter and others are losing subscribers because young people do not like the product they are offering. 60% of TikTok users are under 30. Young people are not signing up for Facebook and Zuckerberg is desperate to get rid of his competition. Of course all the social media platforms are doing the exact same thing. Why are we freaking out about TikTok and not talking about banning Facebook? Why are we talking about banning TikTok and not about banning Instagram? It's absolutely ridiculous that we are going to ban TikTok over this, and mark my words, we are going to piss off a fair chunk of people who earn their livelihood there. All the people who say "tiktok doesn't matter" and don't use tiktok don't get it. Small business owners use tiktok. Young people use tiktok. The worst thing we could do is ban tiktok and have Biden blamed for taking people's livelihood's away.

[pinkstarburst]

3. Okay, but WHY AREN'T WE regulating all of them?

Does anyone actually think that if/when TikTok is banned, the next day, Congress is going to aggressively go after Zuckerberg and the other social media platforms and stop them from collecting data? Because I don't. This is a witch hunt that is going to hurt the small business owners who use TikTok, will piss off young people (voters) who use TikTok, and at the end of the day, social media platforms like Zuckerberg's, which are just as harmful, collecting the same data, doing just as bad stuff (have we forgotten where the Jan 6th riots were organized?), will be allowed to keep on doing bad stuff. And that pissed me off.