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Ben is absolutely right and something needs to be done to fight for the values of liberalism, democracy etc we hold dear but I don't see how this will happen. The world seems more divided than ever. Just 2-3 countries unilaterally acting on these issues isn't going to make a difference, how I wish there were strong leaders in some of the nations who knew how to work well for those ideals in the long term together with others.

Also, this is not just about Tiktok as Ben mentioned. When American corporations like NBA start censoring things on their own soil, it is beyond reprehensible.

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Everyone forgets that Tiktok bought Musical.ly which was an American product to get the market traction they have. The issue that seems more real than political speech is that US social media / internet companies are denied access to the Chinese market while we allow Chinese owned companies complete access to the US market. Seems like that is unjust.

Musical.ly is not an American product. Just because it was incorporated in US does not mean the team and co-founders are from US.

Speak with your money, call in complaints to advertisers, communicate the importance of these actions to your friends.

I am all for activism but does this work unless it reaches a sizeable mass, look at how FB brushed aside the impact of protests by their advertisers.

The current Facebook situation is a bit of a different beast. Most of those advertisers were already cutting their marketing spend because Covid, and are using the current cause to still get attention while reducing direct spend (though I'm sure they'd like Facebook to be a bit heavier on the censorship all the same).

Facebook is likely doing the math now on what makes sense in terms of keeping advertisers happy while resisting temporary market pressure. The answer will probably be a discount on ads, not actually changing content policies, which is what the advertisers are likely gunning for anyways.

Facebook ads are sold as an auction so the discount on ads is already happening. It also tends to produce the type of tempting situation which makes it impossible for brands to resist going back in if they can sneak an advantage in over their competitors.

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