The Impending TikTok ban
In just a few short days the TikTok ban will either go into effect, or it will be delayed for another 90 days. Efforts to stop this ban have so far been unsuccessful. While everyone is discussing what this means for content creators, and wondering where they will flock, I am left wondering what this means for our nation as a whole.
Make no mistake, there has been a back and forth cyber war between the US and foreign powers for decades. Below are a few articles that detail publicly available information on this cyber war:
Planting Tiny Spy Chips in Hardware Can Cost as Little as $200 | WIRED
Chinese hackers also breached Charter and Windstream networks
Russian Military Cyber Actors Target US and Global Critical Infrastructure | CISA
Now with all of these attacks from various sources it’s interesting that suddenly the US government has decided to take a hard stance on… A social media site dedicated to the free sharing of information, and community building. It’s almost ridiculous that instead of enacting, and enforcing, legislation forcing critical US infrastructure and key US corporations to adopt mandatory security practices, they are going after TikTok.
For Example, US Carriers are still highly vulnerable to having their employees bribed to allow for sim swapping by threat actors.
Academic research finds five US telcos vulnerable to SIM swapping attacks | ZDNET
So why the focus on social media? Well if we are to believe our elected employees it’s because of the danger of a foreign power influencing the greater US population and culture. The danger of possible election interference.
Wait, didn’t we have this happen before?
Everything You Need to Know About Facebook and Cambridge Analytica | WIRED
It’s a good thing Facebook was banned after the Cambridge Analytica scandal. Oh wait, it wasn’t. As a matter of fact they got a slap on the wrists, one that was softened by the padding of billions of dollars worth of brib… I mean because of the connections that Meta fostered…
The TikTok ban is based on the age old anti-Chinese bigotry that goes larger ignored by main stream media. So old, the civil war was still in the recent memories of those that enacted the Chinese Exclusion Act (1882).
Now, thanks to short sighted bigotry, many people will lose their livelihoods. Meanwhile Meta and X, two platforms run by men that seem to desire a modern day tech based apartheid state, stand to profit from the banning of TikTok.
Despite all of the rehtoric against MAGA republicans during the campaign, democrats were happy to take money from Meta:
And they have gladly taken money from Elon Musk in the past:
But I’m sure that money has no relation to why companies like X and Meta, who have huge issues with blatant lies on their platform, continue to get support, while TikTok is due to be banned in a few days.