The premise that the Internet is open or was ever open, is fairly absurd given the actual history in question. It started out nation state controlled (ie restri

The premise that the Internet is open or was ever open, is fairly absurd given the actual history in question. It started out nation state controlled (ie restricted), and the core difference between then and now is that those controls have become highly localized down to a given nation (and often entirely localized; versus the US previously having dominant control over much of the whole of the Internet). To argue it's a betrayal of the open Internet, is the same as pretending that somehow nations weren't going to apply their real-world laws, beliefs, economic or political restrictions on the Internet space just as they do in their physical space. Whether we're talking about moral/religious type matters, basic speech issues, human rights issues, commerce/trade, and so on. The Europeans often think the US is crazy for having something reasonably close to true free speech. There must be restrictions they'll proclaim. Britain has far tighter controls over offending public officials online for example. No open Internet for the Europeans? They'll universally disagree with the premise. To make that argument, you have to say that every single localized control over the Internet is a betrayal of the open Internet. And even if I agree that that is true, good luck, because it's going to get dramatically worse over the next decade (and all 50 US states are likely to get further into the regulation party). Morally the US should ban TikTok just on economic reasons alone, in response to China not allowing various foreign competing products into the country (in the social media category in this case). Not just ban it in the US, we should lobby for its economic wipeout across all spheres in which the US has economic influence. The US is in a severe confrontation with China (economically, politically, culturally, etc), and it's only in the 2nd or 3rd inning, there's no sense in pretending at this juncture. That confrontation ends, one way or another, in Taiwan.