Fwiw I fully support your reasoning that TikTok in particular should be viewed as a source of particularly insidious propaganda at this moment. I've been tracking this for years and it seems very obvious to me.

However... when you're talking about Instagram you're talking about the company that offered the tools used in the Cambridge Analytica scandal.

Disinformation on Meta is not new, and quite suspiciously, Meta is shutting down CrowdTangle (a tool developed by Meta for tracking disinformation) just months before the US federal election. https://www.wired.com/story/meta-kills-crucial-transparency-tool-worst-possible-time/

Fuck TikTok, and also fuck Meta. I can be happy that tiktok might be banned and also despise Meta

If I could do an analysis like this, I would. But I don't have the technical know-how to do so. Being like "Why don't you do [complex activity] rather than comment on an existing study" is a shitty mindset that attempts to shut down conversation and doesn't build upon it in any meaningful way.

Further, I think you completely missed the point of what I said. You presented an article that showed tiktok is biased towards CCP positions, and that isn't really surprising. I said that I don't think Instagram is any more trustworthy simply because it is American owned, and I think the framing of that view is flawed. I don't think it invalidates the data, I just think it places a huge amount of trust in a social media company that has been in constant controversy for its entire existence. The point is why is the problem the fact that a social media company is using their power to promote CCP viewpoints, rather than the fact that social media companies have such power with such little oversight.

You seem to be claiming there's a fire without even seeing any smoke while simultaneously ignoring the flames in front of your face.

I think you can only say that when you are intentionally misinterpreting what I said to the point I think you are trying to stuff me in some little box I don't belong in. I acknowledge that TikTok is a problem. If the problem is algorithmic bias with social media, why are we stopping with the foreign company that has opposing interests? Why aren't we angry that a single company can hold so much power and have such little accountability?

the only issue with Meta is how they refused to take down offensive stuff from high-profile conservatives due to political backlash

I wish I lived in a world that this was the only issue meta had.

• Cambridge Analytica
• Internal research shows Instagram knew it harms teens
• The entire concept of facebook echo chambers and radicalization
• That one time Facebook promoted housing discrimination
• Massive tax avoidance and lobbying

I bet I'm missing a ton, but these things quickly came to mind.

Ok how about YouTube which has those analyses. I’m not opposed to the TikTok ban, on these grounds. I just think it’s a half measure