Why ban Tik Tok?

[Mike]

More to the point, how did they get this thing through committee with a unanimous vote and then out to the house where it won 81% approval... all within a week? That 81% was bipartisan and would have been even higher if Trump hadn't suddenly decided to defend Tik Tok at the last minute switching a handful of MAGA votes.

What causes such a bill to hurry through the process so quickly without all the weeks of political theater that accompanies everything these days?

[Akiva]

Maybe because Republicans want to go back to their districts with at least something done. The rest of the session has been ridiculously unproductive.

[Phoebe]

It's important that we take serious, meaningful action to counter the cybersecurity threat posed by China, so clearly the most important thing to do was ban TikTok. In other news, build that wall. The older I get the more I realize how dumb I am, but the more I resent living among people who are even dumber, including those who decide for all of us.

[Kyle]

I actually understand the concern about the Chinese government harvesting information- there was a recent story about how Temu was getting access to people's text messages and private photos even though the app didn't reveal that or ask permission.

But on the other side, I'm really wary of the government forcing foreign companies to sell to american majority ownership because of any concern. We don't care about american companies harvesting our data, and Congress has done nothing about that. But the Chinese? GASP! *Pearl Clutching*

This bill is dumb.

[Tahlvin]

If the end result is that another right-wing billionaire snatches up another prominent social media company, during an election year no less, and allows propaganda to run rampant in the name of "free speech", this will be another self-own by the D's.