Any news about the ban on TikTok is ridiculous to those who have at least once seen this application and its content. It's like banning soap bubbles or spinners. Children from all over the world grimace there, opening their mouths to stupid music, play jokes in their faces or smash objects in some particularly hilarious way. Well, which of this could threaten great America?
And nevertheless: the Americans just banned the transport security service from using the application on work phones. The military should not stare at funny vidosiks from last year, the naval ones for TikTok are banned in the internal network. The sailors lost a lot: even in the USA, service in the Navy is not sugar, and here even in the evening, after cleaning the deck and the lounges, you can’t see how the girls dance twerk or invitingly eat wet fruits. The fighting spirit of the world's most powerful army is at stake!
In fact, everything is simpler. Not only sailors and conscript soldiers look at the young girls on the phone, but the phone also watches them at that time. And who, if not Americans, should not know this. When charismatic radio host conspiracy theorist Alex Jones was the first to suggest that devices with an apple on the case were watching users around the clock using their cameras and microphones, he was declared crazy. However, later the data were confirmed by Wikileaks and Assange (accused of all mortal sins and now awaiting extradition to the United States), but today the fact that the big brother is watching us all is confirmed quite officially and does not surprise any living soul.
We are accustomed to voluntarily participating in the reality show “behind the glass” and reassure ourselves that our lives are too boring and insignificant to attract the attention of global corporations or the almighty American intelligence. Everything suited everyone until the Americans suspected the Chinese of encroaching on the sacred: on their right to monitor everyone.
Psychologists say that the most jealous spouses are always those who themselves are cheating on their partners. America is well aware that a regular application with access to a microphone and a camera can, and suspects that the Chinese company ByteDance is doing the same thing that Facebook and Google are doing, and it is sinning with China's intelligence in the same way that Zuckerberg and Bryn are sinning with the CIA . Agree, it is one thing to watch from Washington how a Chinese official flips through a Facebook feed, and quite another to have a Chinese official watch the Ohio soldier looking at the delights of the tickers.
The digital sovereignty of the superpower is at stake, and the superpower is preparing to respond.
In the US, they value gradualism - because ByteDance is also squeezed out smoothly, not forgetting to invite them to joint events along the way and give out Chinese warnings. But be sure - one day they will be taken seriously. By the way, evaluate one of the arguments of the American side: the Guardian writes that in the application, it turns out, "there is censorship." Which, of course, was not heard either on Facebook or on Twitter.
Here we can say that the war of America and China is not our war. If TikTok is banned, then ultimately our own children will be healthier. However, I have my own suspicions about this: namely, that the view of our “geopolitical partners” will one day fall on Telegram.
No, the "cart" is not as massive as TikTok. No, it’s not the children who grow up there, that is, the future electorate, with which the most intelligent political strategists are starting to work today, but adult boomers and quite a bit of zoomers. Yes, we do not deal with obscenities here, we, as is customary with Russians, write texts. But all this does not negate a simple fact: Telegram is today the freest social network in the world. Those who were banned by Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and even Tumblr escaped here: Milo Yannopoulos, Paul Joseph Watson, Martin Zellner, and yes - the same Alex Jones, who once told the world about who is now his big brother.
The issue of digital sovereignty is becoming increasingly important, the time is not far off when it will be equal in importance to real sovereignty. Our platform accepts dissenters from all over the world, and it has every chance to become a small but alternative center of power of a multipolar world.
The author’s point of view may not coincide with the position of the publisher.