This is probably true, but at least in principle one of those foreign nations stands for free speech and democracy and the other stands for censorship and authoritarianism.
[Edit: hey Europeans commenting and downvoting below, note the words "in principle" in the above comment and evaluate which of the two countries do or do not purport to stand for these things despite whatever your hot take may be on the current moment.]
Huh? Does that negate the missing democracy, the political distrust and the political censorship within your country?
I am happy for you and your flags.
However I didn't claim that china is more "free" just that the US definitely isn't seen as that from the outside anymore. It's not always a direct competition
Given the last few days, As a EU citizen I'm not so sure such distinction is fully accurate anymore. And I'm pretty sure in 2 to 3 years from today the distinction will be even less noticeable.
I wouldn't trust a US data company to not capitulate to... "personal requests" by Musk or Trump any more than I trust it not happening in an hungarian, russian, turkish or chinese one with their respective leadership (official or otherwise).
That's actually funny.. considering that the main reason TikTok ban was proposed was the lack of censorship of sensitive topics like a certain genocide
[Edit: hey Europeans commenting and downvoting below, note the words "in principle" in the above comment and evaluate which of the two countries do or do not purport to stand for these things despite whatever your hot take may be on the current moment.]