this post was submitted on 10 Apr 2024
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I'm not sure how that's relevant. People should be free to use whatever they want. I'm not interested in Russian software, but that doesn't mean banning it is okay. The same goes for Chinese software like TikTok (not touching that), Iranian software, or North Korean software, if that's even a thing. I don't care if literal Nazis made the software, people should be free to use what they want.
The only areas the government should get involved are:
The software I choose to use is not the government's business. If I violate a law, charge me with a crime, but don't preemptively ban stuff.
What if said software is being used to manipulate national interests from a civilian level and its owned by an adverserial nation?
That's one of the costs of liberty. The government will need to find another way.
The barrier to banning something in the interests of national security must be much higher than "this could be used by our enemies." That's the entire basis for the War on a Terror, the Patriot Act, and the NSA spying on Americans, and I won't stand for it. It's also the same idea as banning books, that's just not how a free society works.
You combat misinformation through integrity and transparency, not bans.
Banning software is not the same as banning books, lol. Books are passive ideas, software is active and can be used for espionage. You're creating a false equivalence here.
They're absolutely in the same category.
If the government can ban things in the name of "national security" based on little more than "it's potentially dangerous," what's stopping them from labeling any platform that doesn't censor information the way they want as "dangerous" and subject to bans?
The government doesn't get to choose what I run on my computers, nor do they get to choose what books I read, what movies I watch, etc.
Oh yeah, the fallacious slippery slope again. How creative and intellectual!
If there's anything it applies to, it's government overreach. Look at how the TSA expanded its violation of personal privacy in the name of "security," or how the NSA and FBI have expanded surveillance of individuals. Look at the militarization of police.
Once you let the government ban a handful of apps, it's going to use that new power more frequently. That's what bureaucrats do, when you give them a hammer, everything looks like a nail.
There are so many examples of government getting its foot in the door and steadily expanding its control. That's what it does.