This is such conspiracy theory bullshit. The point was that China controlled an algorithm and platform that was capable of manipulating the views of millions of Americans on _any_ topic. Maybe some people cared about Israel especially, but that wasn't the overall reason for trying to get TikTok in the US out of Chinese control.
You can, of course, make the argument that Facebook, Twitter, etc are also similar threats to other countries and _that is why they aren't allowed in China_.
I agree that this resolution is a worst-case-scenario outcome, though.
Yes, and serious voices have been calling for that since at least the Cambridge Analytica scandal. This is especially true now that the owner of X is openly calling for major political changes in the EU.
This only makes sense. People correctly understood that foreign media organizations are a risk to self-governance and the tech companies which took much of their power should be treated the same way.
The fact that they u-turned on so many policies the second Trump got into power shows otherwise. Not to mention the owner of X was Trumps right hand man for the first 6 months post-election.
The American government, even today, simply does not have comparable cooperation with private companies. If Facebook and Twitter decide one day that they’ll no longer permit people to post mean things about American political leaders, a policy that is at least routine and I think universal in China, I think it would be a no-brainer for Europe to ban them. (Even if they release a special global version of the app that they promise isn’t subject to domestic censorship rules.)
You can, of course, make the argument that Facebook, Twitter, etc are also similar threats to other countries and _that is why they aren't allowed in China_.
I agree that this resolution is a worst-case-scenario outcome, though.