We could do both. But at least American companies are held accountable to an independent judiciary or do enough business in the EU to be forced to be compliant with their rules as well. Comparing the US/EU to the CCP is impossible because they are two different forms of government and judicial accountability.

A bit of a "whataboutism" here. American companies nor America are perfect. But it's a far cry from China. All governments want as much data as possible and conduct espionage. The issue is how much private companies are involved and how much privacy rights are truly protected under the law. (or if the law is a facade) E.G. Apple would not be able to tell the FBI to screw off when the wanted a backdoor under CCP laws. (and in fact has to have any encryption technology approved by the CCP)

1. Bytedance self-reported because of other prior violations. They didn't really have a choice with the current political climate because if they tried to hide it then it would backfire horrendously. The point is they don't have internal safeguards to stop this and targeting journalists is especially egregious.
2. Bytedance cannot be truly at odds with the CCP under Chinese law. The CCP is a board member as required by law at Bytedance. Any information the CCP wants under national security means must be given. Any idea you can challenge the CCP or "push back" via a judicial process is ludicrous." Any notion that Bytedance can "push back" is naive at best.
3. I'm not saying force China to open their borders or treat companies the same. I'm just saying treat them the same way they treat other companies. They are not a developing country anymore (which is why they had the foreign partnership program).

Entirely not my point. China does have the right to ban foreign companies if they wish. However, there is a double standard for non-Chinese companies unless their countries treat Chinese companies the same.

Yeah, I'm always mixed on his motivations. Was it xenophobia, was he angry at Tik-Toker's making it look like no one attended his event? (be reserving all the tickets and not going)

But this is one of those things where, regardless of motivation, he had the right instinct or idea of what needed to be done.

There have always been guardrails on the free market such as child labor laws or other consumer protections. If we wanted a true free market we would allow everyone to freely immigrate to the US and have no minimum wage. That is pure capitalism.

This is still a free market but this would be just another type of common guardrail like we already have. The aim is to protect consumers privacy and national interests (such as if we were drawn into a conflict with China)

It's what Trump tried to do, and for all the things he was wrong about, I actually think he was right back then too.

1. The app, even if necessary to function properly, harvests a lot of user data that the company has repeatedly failed to control. (just last year their employees accessed data on US journalists)
2. There is no independent judiciary in China. The CCP controls the courts. You can't expect Bytedance to refuse, let alone challenge, an invasive attempt by the CCP to access user data.
3. I don't understand why we allow a double standard with countries who don't allow Western companies to independently operate, let alone enter, a foreign country. While we allow companies from those countries that blacklist Western companies without a problem? There should be some basic element of reciprocity here.

I think it boils down to a trust issue where one cannot trust the CCP. Because even if we believed Bytedance to take corrective steps (which they have repeatedly failed), there is nothing to stop the CCP besides trust.

It's not covered here, but Ukrainian forces are wary that this is setup to be a trap by Russia. Leaving forces in the city and making a prolonged city battle. I think someone put it best when they said the situation in Kherson is "clear as mud".

Weird it's the CIA funding this.