Comment on Biden expected to sign the TikTok ban on Wed.
Semi_Hemi_Demigod@lemmy.world 3 weeks agoSo they can’t talk to people about it because they’re not technical experts, but they also have the authority to make decisions despite not being experts.
Car@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 weeks ago
They can talk about it if they want to, but we shouldn’t be using them as our only source of information. Curious on why politicians voted X instead of Y? Look it up! See what experts in the field are saying.
You shouldn’t rely on them to tell you why TikTok is a threat the same way we shouldn’t rely on them to inform us on why weakening EPA standards is good for the environment, why taxing foreign trucks is good for the economy, or why drawing voting maps to concentrate demographics is good for democracy.
The same way you may care about many things but only know a lot about a few subjects, they legislate everything and people act like they are the experts. Why assume they know what they’re talking about for every single topic?
Semi_Hemi_Demigod@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Because I would hope they know what they’re talking about when they write the legislation. Or at least can explain their reasoning for voting a certain way. Especially when nobody has made the case that TikTok is any less dangerous than Facebook or Twitter.
Car@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 weeks ago
They largely don’t write the legislation. Lobby groups draft the materials and if we’re lucky, the congressional aides make a pass and clean things up.
You can search for why TikTok is dangerous. There are plenty of examples of how the application and platform are not being forthright with how they collect your identifiers and weaponize them for information operations campaigns.
Semi_Hemi_Demigod@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Yes but they should at least be able to explain why they voted a certain way on that legislation, right?
I agree that social media is dangerous for all the reasons mentioned, but I don’t see why Zuckerberg and Musk still get to do all those things.