You have no real reason to believe me, but if it's worth anything, I work with US agencies in the domain of information warfare and the relationships with platforms are tenuous if not adversarial. And nothing happens on the scale you might imagine. But if you really do believe that the US is pulling the platforms' strings, I do indeed encourage disentanglement or forcing sales as you describe. What I have seen through my work has strongly reinforced my biases against the Chinese government, but I recognize that others may view my own government in that light.

Personally, I worry more about the platforms and data brokers themselves, as I think everyone should and does. They hold disproportionate power and their incentives drive us all in the wrong direction.

So, I both don’t have any reason not to take your words at face value and I also don’t have any reason to believe you are in the know of anything that’s happening within your government. I assume you’re not the president (you write too well and make too much sense to be him)

So there’s obviously a level of general skepticism here that I consider to be healthy.

That said, the simple fact that lobbying is a thing and the government can be influenced by the use of money is a sign that the A relationship of some level exists.

Now, I personally am on none of those platforms. I use the bare minimum I need and even in that case, as a paying customer of those companies, I don’t expect them to treat me nicely.

Because money seems te be the only thing that matters at this point and morals are way further down the line.

All that said, from an outside observer, seeing the China argument coming from America, considering everything that’s happening in plain sight, it’s ironic to say the least.

> And nothing happens on the scale you might imagine

Do you think it will be different with TikTok US, being owned by Trump's friends (and family?) ?