I’m not a TikTok user or fan, but I agree with a common take on the current attack on TikTok by Washington politicians of both political parties. TikTok may in fact be spying on Americans, but as the other social media giants might say: “Who among us isn’t?”. TikTok is being attacked because it has succeeded where Mark Zuckerberg has failed, and Mark wants it out of the way and is lobbying heavily. Washington politicians of both parties are so out of touch they have no idea how unpopular banning TikTok would be, and that goes double for Democratic politicians.
Particularly for the Democrats, this brouhaha shows how the Washington bubble keeps our “representatives” ignorant of both our wants and our needs. The Democrats have the most to lose by backing this movement, but it appears that most of them are blissfully unaware of the political downside to this self destructive move. It reminds me of something that happened years ago, when Democrats lined up to condemn Moveon (I think it was Moveon) for running an ad that criticized David Patreus (remember him?) by, among other things, using the term Betrayus (it rhymes, don’t you see). It was, a no lose proposition for the Republicans, but it was a lose-lose proposition for the Democrats, as it turned off some of the folks who they should consider their base. Banning TikTok is likely to have a similar effect, except it will likely cause more harm to the Democrats than the Patreus situation.
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