Summary
TikTok faces a U.S. shutdown by Jan. 19 unless the Supreme Court delays or blocks a law requiring its Chinese parent, ByteDance, to divest.
The Biden administration defends the law as a national security measure, citing potential risks of Chinese government influence. Content creators argue it violates free speech.
Donald Trump, once a supporter of the ban, seeks a delay to reach a “political resolution.”
A shutdown could cost TikTok millions of users and revenue. The court’s decision, due soon, could reshape U.S. digital speech policy.
The propaganda here is being pushed generate profit.
In China it’s being pushed for political power.
There is a difference.
when large tech companies invest and support specific political candidates and take certain politically minded moves- it’s for profit.
but if i’m acting in a political manner for profit versus i’m acting in a profitable manner for politics - what is the functional difference?
there is less difference between the chinese system and the US system than many would like to think. the main difference is where the source of the power lies. in the US it’s corporate - in China it’s the state. but what we have been seeing in the last couple decades is both of them are experiencing a convergent evolution into a merging of corporate and state power. coincidentally it’s what many scholars identify as one of the major tenants of fascism in Germany & Italy
The functional difference is the desired outcome.
China wants to control citizens even more than the US government does, by a massive margin.
Just look at the censorship China already has in place, the actual genocide of minorities, and look at what they’d love to be doing to Taiwan (and what they already did to Hong Kong)
Despite what the Cheeto says, the US isn’t going to be invading anywhere to expand the US.
neither US and China need to aggressively invade countries to expand and maintain their power base. modern imperialism is propagated economically, through proxy wars, and fought in the ideological space. all things the US and China both work very hard to accomplish
but we are talking about the economic systems of both countries. the fact that large corporations are becoming increasingly chummy with the state. we are starting to look more like China as China has liberalized and looks more like us