The US owns and regulates the frequencies TV and radio are broadcast on.

The US has also historically regulated who owns media companies.

As for RT vs TikTok - good question. My guess is that scale and influence have a lot to do with why regulating TikTok was prioritized. Also RT has been removed from most broadcasters and App Stores in the US.

Propaganda is a very well known way to enact influence on a foreign nation. It’s so well known that the US has 90 year old laws that limit foreign ownership of US media. For example, in order for Rupert Murdock to own media in the US, he had to become a US citizen and renounce his Australian citizenship in the 80s.

The people making the content have the right freedom of speech, but the people making the editorial decisions on what is / isn’t shown do not have that same right if they are not American citizens.

If tomorrow morning, the CCP decided to start promoting pro-CCP videos made by Americans, they could. And they could use micro targeting to connect people with pro-CCP influencers that were relatable. For example, I like nerdy shit, so I might get propaganda from a content creator that liked a lot of the same nerdy shit I liked.

The primary concern isn’t the content, it’s who controls the editor’s desk.

Murdoch is an American citizen.

Murdoch became a naturalized US citizen in the 80’s so that he could comply with US laws about foreign nationals owning media entities.

That’s definitely the critique coming from America’s right.

That said, both America’s left and right wing politicians seem to agree that it’s dangerous to have a mass media recommendation algorithm in the hands of a foreign adversary.

If they want to promote content favorable a Chinese political objective, they can use micro targeting data do that with extreme precision - if they wanted to.

It doesn’t matter who created the content or where it was created. What matters is the message of the content and who it’s being directed to.

My hot take is that these lies are for the undecideds that hate politics, didn’t watch the debate, and only catch a few snippets a week about what is going on.

He hopes that these people catch his bullshit Cliffs notes before heading into the ballot box.

They didn’t see the debate, so try to get snippets out on social media that tells them about the debate you wished happened.

The concern isn’t that these companies have microtargeting data. The concern is about what these companies could use that data for.

An off-brand t-shirt site would be a fairly ineffective vehicle for political propaganda. Tik Tok would be great at that.

The concern isn’t the input, it’s the potential output. Temu doesn’t have the potential to be used for a large micro-targeted political messaging campaign.

This is arguably more akin to how the US handles TV and radio. There are national security restrictions on foreign ownership.

That was Foxcon, not TSMC. And all of us have a LOT of shit in our homes made by Foxcon.

Not that it justifies the shit Foxcon did. Just saying that Apple got a lot of flack, even though a lot of other companies should be scrutinized for their manufacturing contractor choices. Microsoft, Sony, etc.

Less risk of tariffs on China, less risk of supply chain disruptions like with the pandemic, takes advantage of incentives from the US government, and is something that is cool to advertise.

Maybe I should’ve said “midsize.”

My point is that they’re not a company with tens or hundreds of thousands of employees. And, as someone that usually likes to work at companies that are about size, you can run out of engineers pretty quickly if you’re not focused and or working on stuff that is wickedly complex. And Mozilla is definitely doing the latter.

The foundation is about 80 folks on payroll, although OSS projects have about 1000 contributors popping in and out.

There is also the “MZLA Technologies” subsidiary, which I think has some dedicated headcount under it as well. Although, there isn’t a lot of public info about that company.

They have about 750 employees.

(According to Wikipedia)

Complicating things further, former President Donald Trump has demanded that the House pass the bill as is, and let the government shut down if they can’t get it through.

This fucking guy again. Cause chaos, then run as the solution to the chaos.

270 active users isn’t much for a masto instance.

Given that Mozilla is a small company, and small company’s really can’t afford to lose focus for the major roadmap initiatives, I’m going to bet that this was someone’s hackathon project.

Copper, Pyrite, LETS FUCKING GO!

Going to have the best band class in all of Ohio.

🤘

Obama has had to deal with a ton of assassination threats and attempts. Crazy thing is, he’s STILL dealing with this crap.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Security_incidents_involving_Barack_Obama

They should rebrand and put quotes around “Open.”

This man’s entire political career has been about stoking anger, division, and violence, then playing the victim when he faces any consequences for his actions.

Sadly, this stuff isn’t going to stop until the GOP keeping losing at the ballot box. We have to show up and vote the shit out of office.

Why is Jack Smith dressed like he coaches a dodge ball team at Globo Gym?

Also, can we get another picture of Cannon already?