In light of current events, I’ve been paying more attention to TikTok lately. By “paying attention”, I mean I’ve been watching the nightly batch of puppy TikToks that my daughters have lovingly curated for me.

So from this perspective, I didn’t understand what the big deal was with TikTok and why folks are talking about banning it in the United States. It turns out the issue is much more complicated than puppy videos. If you’d like to get up to speed, Ben Thompson summarizes and adds some insight.