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Because the status quo is that our greatest geopolitical adversary controls the media programming that influences a generation of Americans. It's horrifying that we let this state of affairs persist, and the antithesis of America First.
The problem with TikTok isn't that it's foreign-owned trashy media. The issue is that people enjoy trashy media, especially children, and that good parenting is hard. Trashy media, however, doesn't monkey-see/monkey-do indoctrinate children.
Social media has been trash for decades, well before TikTok became a thing. The power of media influence on children is also wildly inflated, to a degree that I expect a great deal more justification than sloganeering, particularly one when one of the first political tenets of American culture is 'you don't get to tell me what I can or cannot read.' I've lived through 'video game makes kids violent' fearmongering, 'religious media makes kids bigots' fearmongering, 'a lack of religious media makes kids immoral' fearmongering, 'problematic themes makes kids into fascists' fearmongering, and who knows how many alternative variations.
I have yet, however, to see any of these voluntary media consumption theories actually pan out in any empirical fashion into any sort of causal relationship. Kids are frequently stupid, and stupid kids will do stupid things in relation to whatever media they have access to. That does not, however, mean that the media is the cause of their stupidity. The sort of idiot child who tries to live-reenact American pro-wrestling isn't going to be a distinguished engineer if his social media feed / TV station shows more engineering-is-cool clips, but he is just as likely to be a Naruto-running fool with his friends.
No, the issue is that China controls the main media source for a generation. I don't even know what to make of the rest of your post, which doesn't even mention China. Were you trying to completely change the subject? It almost seems like a cognitive analogue of face-blindness, where people who really like TikTok mentally short-circuit when presented with the simple fact that China controls the algorithm that decides who sees what content for a big slice of America, and start reciting unrelated talking points.
You not knowing what to make of the point is rather demonstrating why the point applies.
Not talking about China is not changing the subject, it is the point that that China is not actually the subject, but the red herring justification for a party of an established pattern (the partisan-media complex) and an old problem (decrying the effect of media on kids as a justification for controlling media). It is noting that the historical context around the decision is not Chinese changes, but US domestic politics changes, and that the proposed solution (expropriating PRC influence) doesn't imply the implied result (better Social Media quality), particularly in light on the research that exists around the nominal problem (the nature of the effect of media on kids).
A social media algorithm can provide good content or bad, but 'Good but Chinese' is not bad simply because Chinese any more than 'American social media' is automatically 'good' for the nation's youth. TikTok may very well be 'Bad and Chinese', but 'Bad but American' is also still bad, and not automatically preferable for a number of reasons, including the long-established skepticism for granting the government or political parties greater control of the media-economic sphere.
Given that the Biden administration made no compelling argument that swapping 'Chinese' for 'American' would make it 'better' quality in and of itself, and also that the Democratic Party-media complex has a contemporary history of pursuing and asserting standards that are partisan rather than 'American' in nature, up to and including algorithm manipulation...
Well, 'we need the algorithm in the hands of people we can trust' is not a meaningful argument when the people making it are also the people who would be in a position to determine whose hands it ends up in are also not trusted to abuse it themselves. 'Bad but Chinese' may be bad, but 'Bad but my partisan opposition' is not intrinsically better.
For a commonality argument to hold over something like 'Trust me to take over your media alternative, bro,' there needs to be a degree of social trust to give that, and social agreement of what the nature of the problem is being addressed to warrant extending that trust to resolve. None of the key proponents have it, and not understanding that- or why social trust is necessary- is precisely why the argument resorts to 'because Chinese!', and why it fails to move the domestic opposition skeptics.
The point isn't to make the media high-quality, the point is to make it not be controlled by our geopolitical opponent. And the latter is 100% achievable.
By giving it to the partisan opponent*, who has a much more relevant and contemporary history of abusing the algorithm for partisan gains in the American political context.
*Of Donald Trump, whose non-support for the Biden Administration on this matter was the starting point for this thread tangent, and whose non-support is the subject to be contested / discredited.
And thus we return to the first response to Ashlael, which you have not disputed and seem intent on not acknowledging:
Which brings to question the validity of appeals to commonality and common interest.
In the context of this, there is no 'our' being discussed here, because the 'our' is one in which the critical portion that needs to be enabled / supported is hostile to the other part of the 'our' in the same general fashion as it claims as justification for the collective effort.
Which concludes with the ending of the previous post to you-
No. The White House wouldn't run the algorithm. It would just need to be divested to a western acquirer. Didn't read the rest of your post since it started off on such an ignorant and/or dishonest foot.
Yes, the White House will determine who gets to runs the algorithm. The American Executive Branch agencies and regulators will be the ones to determine who is a suitable western acquirer for the American wing of TikTok, a process which will give various approval, veto, and other shaping opportunities on various security and/or anti-monopoly basis.
You didn't seem to read the rest of the other posts either, so your projection is understandable.
You suggested that they'd control it directly, which is false
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What do you think of the high rate of trans associated with social media consumption by kids?
That the association of their friend and political-peer groups matter far more, and that this is a context where the social media content is downstream, not upstream, of political culture.
Also, that this specific example is a demonstration as to why the foreign affiliation (or lack thereof) is a red herring, and even counter's the original point. TikTok and geopolitical competitor social media are not the sources of trans culture. Social media is a magnifier of access to / awareness of / participation in age-cohort culture, not because of ownership but because of what the internet fundamentally enables via facilitating interactions.
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