this post was submitted on 18 Mar 2024
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Google owns Youtube (and gmail, most popular mail provider). You should think more deeply about what ads are and what are governments motivations. It is both the same thing. Google and META want power, they want money, because money is a voting power for allocation of resources in the society. Chinese governments want power, so they can have more money and more voting power for allocations of their resources.
The nationality of people in these governments doesn't matter at all to them. Chinese government doesn't care about regular Chinese citizens no more then US government does about their own. They simply care for their own power/money. And that is their interests.
Google and META work with the governments, they have actual NSA offices and follow any orders from the government, just like TikTok does. The problem here has nothing to do with what country it is in, it is simply that one set of rich folks are bothered that they can't control something other rich folks are controlling. People, in both cases, suffer and have no power whatsoever in the process.
Meta has zero interest in destabilizing the American democracy. China does. China wants to take over Taiwan. Meta doesn't.
You see where I'm getting at? It's in Meta's best interest to have a vibrant democracy and a strong economy. China does not.
Meta doesn't give a flying fuck who owns the south China seas. Guess who does and has the tools to influence the people who vote for the politicians that will ignore an invasion to Taiwan?
Sure China probably wants money. But imagine how much money they can have if they influence America not to step into an invasion into Taiwan. 90% of the world's semiconductors would be under the influence of China.
Meta has a vested interest in making money. This has caused them to force polarizing content onto users pages, even when the information presented is false. They have worsened the political divides in America, and caused a significant number of people to believe lies about their fellow citizens.
The fact is Meta has damaged democracy for it's own profit.
Mate look at neo-fascist/white supremacist content on Facebook and tell me with a straight face that Facebook isn't destabilizing American democracy.
Also, fuck their rebranding. It's always going to be Facebook for me.
Facebook "accidently" created a polarizing bubble for neo fascist. Because they only cared about user engagement, regardless of what kind of engagement they get.
Now imagine an adversary was more intentional with this. Imagine the power they would wield.
Meta has absolutely best interest in removing any democracy in US since it profits from abusing rights of the citizens that would very much like to regulate it. So it is in their interest, like of any company, to strip away it's workers and customers of any rights it possibly can.
Don't fall for tricks of politicians when they pretend that they are any better from politicians from another country, they are not, they just have more influence in the media to elevate problems in other countries and minimize the problems in their own.
Abusing rights can still be done without removing democracy. Shit, they are doing that now and making a shit ton of money. Billionaires actually might lose it all under communism. Did know why the CCP came into power, right? The working class got sick of the rich and started a revolution. They drove the KMT into what is now modern Taiwan.
Did you know what happened to Jack Ma? The old CEO/Founder of Alibaba. Dude was the richest person in China. Under China, dude just slightly mentioned something negativity about the CCP and he hasn't been able to go back to China.
You think Zuck wants to risk communism so he "might" make a few more bucks at the sake of losing all his wealth? Bro. Our adversaries are the only people that wants to end of democracy.
They constantly make such risks when they make anti-consumer policies and somehow it doesn't seem to hurt them, because they have the power to force the people in a system they don't want. They can't abuse rights without removing democracy, US has no democracy since the people don't support the policies of their governments. They are forced to vote between two worst possible choices and they are brainwashed to think that is somehow a democracy.
I 100% agree with you.
The American political system is not perfect. It has its flaws. But that isn't what we are talking about, are we?
We are talking about how the CCP has created an app that has the ability to manipulate the US population in their favor. Having the ability to mobilize Americans to vote for politics and politicians that fits in their favor.
The American politics already has a shit ton of problems than to add another one like the CCP/Tiktok.
What difference does it make if it is CCP or Zuck? They have same interests, same way of thinking, same goals. They are no better nor worse. These fearmongering of China is mostly there to hide the horrible things and influences they do. Have we already forgotten the Cambridge Analytic scandal? That is some actual political manipulation right there, not some teoretical CCP issue, which we all agree is also an issue. But this bias obvious.
Cambridge Analytics? You're comparing this to something like the Uyghur genocide?
While there are similarities, there is one key difference between them. The CCP wants to dismantle America so they can be the world's superpower.
Does Zuck want to invade Taiwan? No. Does Zuck openly kill groups of people that he doesn't like? No, at least not openly. Does Zuck care about border disputes between China and India and the south China seas?
No. The only thing they have in common is greed. Both want money, but only one can invade a country.
Facebook works with the intelligence agencies that coup governments, kill and kidnap people and make up lies to start wars in Iran. They work with the US government that openly funds a genocide in Gaza. Yes Chinese government is no worse the the US government and them being a superpower is just as bad as US.
Again. Our government is not perfect. We should not give them a free pass. But it's still our government. Not the CCPs.
Why do you feel that the CCP is ok influencing our government?
I don't think anyone should be influencing our government, neither rich US citizens nor the CCP. I am simply stating that there is more in common between US billioners and CCP then between us and the blillioners. The country of their origin means nothing at all, they have the same interests and we shouldn't help either of them fight each other for complete domination of our media. If you can't get rid of all of them at the same time, better to keep them in balance of power so people can hear critisizm on both platforms of each other, instead of giving the single group all the power and united in destroying us.
I am not fighting you about having nobody influencing our government. I'm just saying we should be doing this in baby steps. Let's start by stopping the CCP, then work on our internal problems.