The comparison is disingenuous because it makes it look like the current US based social media scene is as harmless and unassuming as a cup of water. When they appeared they were the ocean. What they were doing then was just as unacceptable as what TikTok is doing now. And they were still "shoved" down our throats with the same tricks of the trade TikTok is using now. We just raised our baseline and the unacceptable became acceptable.

How about if we say it's like a sea to the ocean? They still "just don't compare" but both are able to easily drown the world's population and for a ship on that water for all intents and purposes they're the same.

Let's not delude ourselves, this isn't about "too much data is being collected" or the gratuitous "but but but children" remark. Between all the US-based big-tech companies and the NSA/Five Eyes, the US has enough data to blackmail children for decades to come (see? the children argument works both ways). No, the problem here is that someone other than the US is doing it and could get an upper hand.

Facebook and Alphabet have probably collected more info about the people of the world than any other companies in existence and all of it can/is being shared with intelligence services if demanded. Isn't this collecting an ocean of data about your children? [0] I could dig up 1000 stories like that. But you're not worried because you were educated that some countries doing it is OK and China's explicitly not on that list.

[0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24091006