Save this post for anyone who thinks there's no state manipulation in the internet discourse. The same reason they want to ban tiktok, because they want to control the "public discourse" to push their narrative.

As much I hate the CCP, there needed to be a counter balance to the censorship monopoly on most of the internet. Instagram can reveal chinas atrocities and tiktok can reveal the same of the west.

Beware of the manipulation on both ends, but let the facts come out however possible. When you realize how the Afghanistan and Iraq war mostly got swept under the rug when the west had the censorship monopoly, then it all starts to make sense.

This is also why fediverse is important in the long run. Distributed and hard to censor as instances run under different jurisdiction.