by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner
While I really enjoy Tik-Tok, I am an Old and as such I lean towards supporting a ban of the service in the States. Some of the abuses I’ve heard on the part of the service, like tracking the individual locations of Forbes reporters of all things, only confirm my worst fears about Tik-Tok.
The only thing I don’t like about the idea of banning Tik-Tok is it sets a dangerous precedent in regards to the regulation of social media. Given that the United States is likely on the cusp of a final slide into autocracy I’m not thrilled will establishing the legal basis for our new autocrat President Ron DeSantis to fuck with social media just when we’re going to need it the most.
But I do have some real national security concerns about Tik-Tok. It’s spooky ability to figure out my internal monologue has been enough to get me thinking paranoid thoughts of maybe some sort of “digital telepathy” might be involved. That’s just bonkers, though. And probably the less I talk about that fear, the better.
I’ve mentioned my fear about Tik-Tok being able to read my mind while drunk at a bar and it did not go well.
I would just prefer someone as potent within America’s youth culture to be owned and operated by a company that was under the auspices of American law and ethnics. I don’t like the idea that the Chinese government is able to monitor — and influence — on an intimate basis the domestic social media activity of its chief geopolitical rival.
Only time will tell, I suppose.
