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The US govt doesn’t like it when entities outside of their control potentially have power over their citizens.

It’s not an unreasonable position to take, and this site is US centric.

The US government just doesn't want the competition.
Umm. Well, mostly because tiktok is the only major social media company associated with a government that has a history of trying to steer US elections one way or another.
Because in the US we're okay if domestic companies attempt to manipulate our elections but we take issue with companies that are substantially under the control of a foreign government doing so.

We probably shouldn't be as casual with domestic companies doing it, but it should be pretty obvious why an extension of a large foreign government doing it would be much more concerning.

What about when one of the more influential media companies is just a bunch of teenagers from eastern europe doing it for the ad clicks? And it just so happens that one side of the aisle clicks more than the other?

> Fake News: How a Partying Macedonian Teen Earns Thousands Publishing Lies https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/fake-news-how-partying-ma...

> The Macedonian Fake News Industry and the 2016 US Election https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/ps-political-science...

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Am I misunderstanding this? Isn’t this just the view, rating, and comment data required to offer the service?

Building an interface to search that data is exactly how you’d evaluate a recommendation engine.