For U.S. politicians wanting to control the Internet, hysteria over
TikTok is only the beginning
Let's be clear about this. Apparently the U.S. has no evidence that
TikTok has been used for surveillance by China. Yeah, China does
surveillance, the U.S. does surveillance. But China doesn't need to use
highly visible apps like TikTok, or products like DJI drones for spying.
Hell, if they really want good stuff, China can just buy as much
personal data as they want from the almost entirely unregulated
commercial data brokers in the U.S. who Congress refuses to effectively
control!
TikTok's app reportedly gathers much the same data as an enormous number
of popular U.S.-based apps. Beijing is apparently opposed to a forced
sale of TikTok. Both the U.S. Left and Right are going nutso about
TikTok without any real evidence at all, and both parties and Biden keep
talking about "shutting it down."
THIS is but the beginning. THIS is the future of the Internet at the
hands of the politicians whose collective understanding of how tech
really works couldn't fill a thimble, and who are now attempting to use
antitrust law to create an Internet more easily micromanaged and
controlled by the government.
Both U.S. parties' Internet Taliban clarion calls: Shut down Big Tech!
Government control of content! Eviscerate Section 230! Demand that
everybody use government IDs to access sites that have any content
"inappropriate" for children!
That future awaits us just outside the door. It's banging on the door
right now, and politicians in both parties are happily inviting that
future inside our homes and businesses. This is what governments have
been waiting for. This is their moment. Establish broad government
control of the Internet, and you control everyone's lives, down the last
byte of lost freedoms.
The ghosts of every dictator across the history of human civilization
could be smiling and thinking: "I wish I'd had one of those Internets."
L
- - -
--Lauren--
Lauren Weinstein
[email protected] (https://www.vortex.com/lauren)
Lauren's Blog: https://lauren.vortex.com
Twitter: https://twitter.com/laurenweinstein
Mastodon: https://mastodon.laurenweinstein.org/@lauren
Founder: Network Neutrality Squad: https://www.nnsquad.org
PRIVACY Forum: https://www.vortex.com/privacy-info
Co-Founder: People For Internet Responsibility
Tel: +1 (818) 225-2800
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