Trudeau government bans TikTok from operating in Canada

I have nothing but disdain for TikTok and the CCP but this seems like a very misguided approach.

Being open and willing to accept foreign media (even when it's of low quality or propagandistic) is an advantage of genuinely open societies.

Bad speech can be countered with more speech, and media from western countries can easily be seen on VPNs in countries with heavy censorship. Bans only play to more repressive societies who can claim equivalence.

A better approach is to monitor the activity and narratives promoted and counter them. Chinese propaganda is usually ham handed and low quality anyway.

I agree with you conceptually, in a world where everyone is genuinely seeking the truth and sceptically fact checking. But the reality is the general public don't have the time or attention span to read beyond a headline let alone wait for a retorting explanation.

That combined with peoples propensity to be attracted to rage-bait and outrageous content in my opinion leaves a loop of scroll, get outraged, move onto next topic.

We saw that in the US election cycle that just passed. One side makes outrageous in-factual claim, voter base gets riled up, other side attempts to set the record straight, other side is already riled up on a completely different in-factual claim.

I'm not sure what the solution is. Banning TikTok probably isn't it.