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Suzi Island wrote:

I think tik tok is cringe but to ban it is vast overreach

I do overlap with the neocons a little bit here. I consider TikTok to be a psychological warfare platform used to carry out influence operations and track any users of a device on which it may be installed. It is also, intentionally or not, a sort of digital opium that is not only addictive but appears to degrade attention spans, critical thinking, and induce social and behavioral maladaptation (yeah, maybe the maladaptive sorts are drawn to the platform, but I think it goes both ways). Its parent company ByteDance is also host to a political commisariat called a CCP Committee, which is typical of large companies in the PRC.

I would further note the double standards - the PRC owns TikTok but they don't allow it to operate on their side of the Great Firewall. Nor do they allow American social media in China. But this is where I part company from the likes of Dan Crenshaw.

American social media are also psychological warfare platforms, which are being actively employed in myriad domestic disinformation campaigns at home and foreign campaigns abroad. They track, they censor, and they organize campaigns against troublesome content creators. If you think it's outrageous that TikTok's parent company should be forced to have a cell of political officers, you should be more incensed at all of the "retired" spies infesting American big tech firms, with a particular focus on their Trust and Safety Councils.

I think at its root, the US government is hard pressed to find a standard by which it can criticize TikTok, where the same argument can't be turned back on itself. If the US cleaned up its own house, this is a problem that might very well be solved in the process. In the mean time however, we are mired in our own moral bankruptcy.