> If US companies want it to be less popular how about they compete and make a better product?
They don't want it to be less popular; the US encourages media monopolies. The larger the better. US government belligerence towards TikTok served the same purpose as US government belligerence towards Twitter and Facebook: leverage in order to be able to censor it and emphasize US narratives.
They won, TikTok is fully censoring based on US government "suggestions," and this state/local-level political grandstanding are people jumping into an operation that is already over.
They don't want it to be less popular; the US encourages media monopolies. The larger the better. US government belligerence towards TikTok served the same purpose as US government belligerence towards Twitter and Facebook: leverage in order to be able to censor it and emphasize US narratives.
They won, TikTok is fully censoring based on US government "suggestions," and this state/local-level political grandstanding are people jumping into an operation that is already over.