Or it's ok if Lusk manipulates social media messaging but not if China does?
Tik Tok and a Protectionist Internet
Matt Pearce
Notes-
One of the Great Power lessons of the internet is that whoever controls the infrastructure controls the content.
Internet infrastructure: platforms (Facebook, Google, Amazon, Apple, etc?), Oracle (Austin) "cloud" memory electricity facilities and power needs, Lusk buying Twitter now looks so much bigger and even more sinister.... The gov is investing 500 billion in AI, much of which will probably go to building energy infrastructure to run all those cloud servers and super duper smart chips.
What is the problem with Tik Tok as is? First, that China could mass-harvest data about U.S. citizens for later strategic use. Second, that China could manipulate TikTok’s content moderation to push pro-China messaging to Americans or content that would exploit our sizable domestic divisions. What Musk, Zuckerber, Bezos, Google, etc, already do but they're at least Americans, a sovereignty issue repugs seem to totally ignore when it comes to Russia.
What the Act targets is the CCP/PRC’s ability to manipulate that content covertly.
Who controls the algorithms now? Lusk and Grump, presumably.
Anyway, Matt Pearce, another substack blogger. Cannot possibly keep up with anymore substackers, I'm always buried under a blizzard of unread substack emails already, but caught up with this fine post. Long time journalist, based in LA, takes a critical look at the news and media spaces. Over the last fifteen to twenty years, this century, anyway, the internet and social media have cannibalized legacy journalism and media, newspapers, magazines, transforming the public square in disturbing ways. How journalists can operate in this radically harsh and changing environment is Pearce's subject. Good stuff.
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