Responding to a lawsuit from video-sharing platform TikTok, the US Justice Department argued that China could order the company to manipulate TikTok’s algorithm and expand Beijing’s “malign influence.”
The US Justice Department defended a law that aims to either ban TikTok or force it to divest its assets in the US after the social media company filed a lawsuit against the legislation.
Under the law, the social media platform will have to find a non-Chinese buyer or face a ban in the US by January 19, 2025.
The Chinese-based TikTok is challenging the law before a US appeals court.
Why stop at just tiktok? All social media and hyper-targeted advertising poses the same threat and can be misused just as easily. It’s almost as if, and this is shocking I know, advertising and online privacy should be very strictly regulated as a national security concern.
Lobbying funds. $20M annually from Meta alone.
https://www.opensecrets.org/federal-lobbying/clients/summary?id=D000033563