Hot take: Republicans are enthused to take down TikTok not because it is owned by a Chinese company but rather it is a social media platform dominated with young people. Remember it was the TikTok users who trolled the Trump campaign into thinking they were going to have a large crowd for their first rally after Covid in Oklahoma. It was TikTok made up of Gen Z who tipped the Democrats from getting annihilated in the midterms. Is being a social network being owned by China a liability? Of course, but there can mitigation measures. And it is also unfair to target TikTok over privacy concerns while ignoring Meta, Alphabet, and Twitter. Ever wonder why Republicans keep railing the “Chinese Communist Party” and supposed Chinese communism when describing the government of China even when it makes no sense sometimes? It’s because they want a new Cold War, a new easy foil, to rally their base about some existential threat like it’s the Soviet Union. Surprise, China and the Soviet Union are not the same. For one, we did not have annual trade worth about $1 trillion between the USSR and America. If we want to be honest about TikTok, we should honest about ourselves.

Hot take: Republicans are enthused to take down TikTok not because it is owned by a Chinese company but rather it is a social media platform dominated with young people. Remember it was the TikTok users who trolled the Trump campaign into thinking they were going to have a large crowd for their first rally after Covid in Oklahoma. It was TikTok made up of Gen Z who tipped the Democrats from getting annihilated in the midterms. Is being a social network being owned by China a liability? Of course, but there can mitigation measures. And it is also unfair to target TikTok over privacy concerns while ignoring Meta, Alphabet, and Twitter. Ever wonder why Republicans keep railing the “Chinese Communist Party” and supposed Chinese communism when describing the government of China even when it makes no sense sometimes? It’s because they want a new Cold War, a new easy foil, to rally their base about some existential threat like it’s the Soviet Union. Surprise, China and the Soviet Union are not the same. For one, we did not have annual trade worth about $1 trillion between the USSR and America. If we want to be honest about TikTok, we should honest about ourselves.

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