Technology

being spied on by the government of the country I live in than by a government from a foreign country

Ha, that's a decent point. I don't really care for either. I think about these things among others:

• China has proved they are interested in conflict. They haven't used any kinetic/traditional warfare against anyone lately, though they seriously want to with Tiwan.
• China has been using nonstop cyber related warfare to conduct espionage, steal trade secrets, position themselves for assisting kinetic warfare with cyber warfare, etc.

I am not a direct target of these, but China killing the power grid or disabling telecommunications does have the potential to have a huge impact on my life.

• The US government has used nonstop kinetic and cyber warfare over the last 20+ years.

The US playing world police doesn't directly threaten my safety, but I definitely would be more worried about the US than China if I wasn't a US citizen.

The US government spying on me:

• Super annoying mostly due to the principle of a lack of privacy, regardless of whether I do anything bad or not
• Becomes a serious problem if I was an active opponent of government policy and elected officials, and the government/leadership deems me a terrorist/insurrectionist/etc.

Their discretion of what's my free speech and right to criticize the government vs leading insurrection would be more complicated if they were using the NSA to own my life and try to use any excuse to lock me up.

I guess I weigh what's more likely to be a problem in my current/future life.

I don't like either of these scenarios.

The fundamental fear of TikTok isn't censorship. It's fear of a media outlet that expresses views sympathetic to the Chinese government.

If Americans are exposed to these views, there is a horrifying possibility that they my agree with them. And if Americans agree with the Chinese government, it's just a matter of time before America crumbles from within.