• freagle@lemmygrad.ml
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    30
    ·
    edit-2
    20 hours ago

    The number rule of counterintelligence is to never reveal your position. I imagine this statement is not the actual truth but instead the narrative that has been agreed to.

    I believe the real truth is that TikTok, unlike all other major internet systems, was not built with integration into the USA’s surveillance and propaganda systems in mind, and while US operations are fully infiltrated by US state actors, the actual technology and infrastructure remains somehow opaque to US intelligence.

    The move to shut it down is really just a move to force a sale. They are banking on the profit motive being enough for ByteDance to give over enough control as to allow the USA to integrate fully with the tech statck.

    But no one can say this out loud so a narrative that is believable enough, incendiary enough, and one that actively resisting would trigger infighting about is the perfect narrative.

    • ThermonuclearEgg [she/her, they/them]@hexbear.netOP
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      13
      ·
      23 hours ago

      Honestly same-picture IMHO.

      The US would like to better control narratives such as — but certainly not limited to — the one about Gaza, and integrating all the English speaking Internet into its surveillance is how they want to do it.

      • freagle@lemmygrad.ml
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        6
        ·
        20 hours ago

        I guess I am saying they don’t care about the risk of radicalization as much as they care about their inability to influence thought. If they cared about radicalization, so many things would be a problem. But they only go after the opaque systems, because it’s the opacity that’s the problem.