I absolutely agree that criticism is speech and should absolutely be protected, even if the take doesn't have merit. And that's basically what I'm doing here, I'm criticizing the FUD against social media platforms like TikTok; yes they're bad, but not bad enough to curtail speech.

And yes, Lemmy doesn't set policy, but voters elect reps who do, and there are a lot of voters here. That's why I bother discussing politics at all, in the hope that maybe someone will consider what I have to say the next time they cast their ballot. Who knows, maybe I'll persuade someone that freedom is worth more than protectionism, probably not, but I'm not doing much else while sitting on the toilet.