Lol when America can't compete we just bully and sanction in the name of "national security". We literally did this to Toshiba to fuck over Japan's semi-conductor business in the 80s and they are an ally for god's sake: https://www.trtworld.com/magazine/how-us-prevented-japan-s-toshiba-from-becoming-no-1-chipmaker-62393

So yeah, "National Security" and "Please think of the children!!!!" are the two trump cards always played by our politicians to win over their ignorant voters. In this case both applies so it's a double whammy to win political points.

>companies like meta are lobbying HARD for a tiktok ban

Yep: https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2022/03/30/facebook-tiktok-targeted-victory/