What's the point of the TikTok ban if they're not actually going to ban it?

It is political theatre, to pretend they are doing something against the “evil chinese communists” (who are actually hyper-capitalist, but whatever).
First proposed by the Orangutan as part of his trade war against “CHY-NAH”, he now does not want to ban it because he is becoming more popular on the platform (and because one republican megadonor is a major investor in tiktok’s parent company, as well as the orangutan’s own “truth social”)

We know why they wanted to ban it. But now, things are getting complicated.

The bipartisan attempt to do what the US has used as reasons to demonize other countries (ban media, limit speech, etc) is radicalizing a whole new generation. The Biden admin might have wanted to shield themselves from the truth of the war crimes they have been committing. But doing so is admission of such crimes and complicity in a rot that goes well beyond our participation in this genocide.

The rush of people to Xiaohongshu in the past week or so due to the TikTok ban has been hilarious. A whole new generation of people interacting directly with people in China and learning some Mandarin, which is also shattering some of the mythology surrounding the “China is evil” narrative the US media pushes.

Anyway, Biden punted, in what appears to be the one time that the administration has decided that not alienating people and doing things that they perceive as evil might be a good thing for the whatever future the Dem party hopes to have.

Will the Trump admin proceed and ban it? Who knows. But it’s a lot more challenging now that people have woken up.

It is pretty complicated. It’s a way for people to make money, which includes Republicans.

But it’s also a way to spread awareness about how bad people are, so it’s natural you want to ban something that would cause the American people to come together against the rich.

@hat It’s been quite remarkable seeing decades of anti-China propaganda undone by Americans and Chinese people interacting on these TikTok alternatives (nothing more dangerous than cross-cultural interpersonal communication). Though I’ve also heard that now they want to ban Xiaohongshu as well, framing it as an even bigger “security threat” than TikTok.

Clearly the solution is for Elon Musk to own all social media.

Who is not going to enforce the ban?

“Clearly the solution is for Elon Musk to own all social media.”
Now that is what I call a security threat.

Seems like a lot of pointless dick swinging, if you ask me.

I like TikTok. Follow a bunch of very cool artists and musicians on there.