Doomscroll News

Tag: speech

  • The X Paradox: An Analysis of Platform Governance, User Safety, and Inauthentic Activity Under Elon Musk

    Executive Summary

    This report analyzes the social media platform X under Elon Musk’s ownership. It examines the profound shifts in governance, user safety, and core architecture.

    The central argument is that these changes have created the ‘X Paradox.’ The platform champions ‘free speech’ but creates a hostile environment that silences many users. It promotes ‘authenticity,’ yet its systems fail to stop inauthentic activity and often penalize genuine users.

    The analysis details several key issues:

    • Inconsistent Policies: Rules for world leaders are applied inconsistently.
    • Eroding Trust: A monetized verification system has damaged user trust.
    • Bot Proliferation: Automated accounts persist, degrading the user experience and manipulating political discourse.
    • Declining Safety: Hate speech has measurably increased while content moderation has collapsed. This disproportionately impacts women and marginalized communities.
    • Opaque Appeals: The process for appealing suspensions is frustrating and lacks transparency.

    The report concludes that this transformation is not an accident. It is the successful implementation of a new, permissive philosophy that externalizes the cost of safety onto its users.

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  • A New American Platform

    A New American Platform

    After an 𝕏 history filled with plenty of bogus ideas, my stances have obviously evolved, so consider the following my most current platform.

    Don’t reform the failed systems of the past or indulge the inaction of extreme libertarianism.

    Platform Overview

    Signature National Initiatives

    • Launch a 21st Century Manhattan Project: Secure absolute American technological, energy, and military supremacy. Focus on topics such as: nuclear engineering, the development of sovereign AI, and the construction of a ‘Golden Dome’ missile shield. Absorb and accelerate other critical advanced projects: like directed energy, hypersonics, and cybernetics. Participation in this project, at all levels, will be restricted exclusively to U.S. citizens.
    • The Phoenix Mandate: A plan to eliminate the national debt by revolutionizing the U.S. healthcare system through personal health tech, ending the nursing home model, funding “moonshot” cures via a public-private “Titan Mandate”, issuing a “Stargate Ultimatum” for AI to slash costs, and enforcing a “Patriot Price Mandate” on pharmaceuticals.

    Taxation, Revenue & An American Dividend

    • Abolition of Income Taxes: Immediately abolish all Federal personal and corporate income taxes. The IRS’s role as a tax collection agency should be eliminated.
    • Strategic Capital Gains Tax: A modest capital gains tax will be retained for the sole purpose of preventing rampant short-term speculation, designed to heavily incentivize mid-to-long-term investment.
    • An American Dividend (Hybrid System): A hybrid system should be implemented immediately. A significant portion of all tariff revenue should be used to aggressively pay down the national debt, while the remainder should be returned directly to The People as an immediate “Freedom Dividend.”
    • Full Dividend Potential: Once the debt is paid, the full revenue from the baseline 15% tariff will be returned directly to The People, potentially translating to more than $1,700 per U.S. citizen, per year.
    • Mandatory Cash Option: The United States cannot become a cashless society. Physical cash must always be preserved as a valid form of payment.

    Economic & Financial Policy

    • Multi-Level Strategic Tariffs: Implement a 15% baseline tariff. Additionally, POTUS must have full discretionary authority to impose massive strategic tariffs (e.g., 50%, 100%, 400%, 1000%) on critical sectors like microchips.
    • Prohibit Peacetime Cryptocurrency: Cryptocurrency is a national security threat and its use by the general public should be prohibited.
    • The Wartime Digital Asset Act: Treat the underlying crypto technology (blockchain, ASICs) as a strategic military asset to be deployed only in times of declared war.
    • Prohibit Hostile Financial Systems: Expose and ban the integration of Sharia-compliant finance into the U.S. economy.
    • Reject Corporate Bailouts: The $10 billion investment in Intel is a bailout.
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  • The TikTok Paradox: National Security, Digital Sovereignty, and the Forging of U.S. Tech Policy

    The TikTok Paradox: National Security, Digital Sovereignty, and the Forging of U.S. Tech Policy

    David’s Note: This article was substantially revised on October 10, 2025 to incorporate new research and provide a more comprehensive analysis.

    On January 17, 2025, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld a landmark law that forces the sale of TikTok, a platform used by over 170 million Americans, or face a nationwide ban.1 This decision highlighted a central paradox in modern American policy. TikTok is at once a legislative target, condemned as a grave national security threat, and an indispensable campaign tool, actively leveraged by the political actors who seek to regulate it.

    This paper argues that this apparent contradiction is not a sign of policy incoherence. Instead, it reveals an evolving and deliberate strategy to confront a novel threat to the nation’s digital sovereignty. Digital sovereignty is a nation’s ability to control its own digital destiny—the data, hardware, and software it relies upon.3 In this context, it means securing the digital infrastructure and information environment within its borders from the control of a strategic adversary.4

    The core of this argument is that the threat posed by TikTok is fundamentally structural. It is rooted in the legal and operational subordination of its parent company, ByteDance, to the government of the People’s Republic of China (PRC). This structural risk is distinct from the commercial data practices of domestic social media companies. It has compelled the U.S. to forge a new national security doctrine for the digital age.

    To develop this thesis, this paper will proceed in four parts.

    • Section I will establish that TikTok represents a structural national security threat due to its data collection capabilities under PRC law and its potential for algorithmic manipulation.
    • Section II will trace the evolution of U.S. legal strategy, from the failure of broad executive orders to the crafting of a targeted, constitutionally-sound legislative solution.
    • Section III will systematically deconstruct the primary counterarguments against this policy, including those based on the First Amendment, economic disruption, and false equivalencies with U.S. tech firms.
    • Section IV will analyze the political realities that create the central paradox, examining how electoral pragmatism and divided public opinion coexist with the national security consensus.

    Ultimately, this analysis will demonstrate that the TikTok dilemma is a landmark case in how a liberal democracy is adapting its legal and political tools to defend its sovereignty in an era of weaponized information.

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