This is Part 2 of an analytical series on the U.S. TikTok ban.
Trump’s first stab at banning TikTok in 2020 fizzled out. As he left office to be replaced by Joe Biden, the ban dissolved, and TikTok was granted respite from its existential crises.1 But, unfortunately for TikTok, controversy is a way of life.
In June of 2022, Buzzfeed reported that Chinese ByteDance employees had access to U.S. user data stored in U.S. servers. This was despite the fact that TikTok’s response to data concerns had long been to point towards its U.S. data storage. The Buzzfeed report occurred simultaneously as TikTok publicly presented its plans for Project Texas, a data restructuring project that they had been working on with Oracle and CFIUS. The collaboration’s purpose was to establish an Oracle managed data center in Texas. Project Texas was supposed to help mediate concerns regarding Chinese access to U.S. user data, but the release of the Buzzfeed report raised concerns that immediately reduced the credibility of the project. Experts commented that storing data within the U.S. physically would not prevent Chinese employees from accessing it.2
The next wave of TikTok ban fervor ensued, culminating in flashpoints like TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew’s now infamous congressional hearing in March of 2023. I recall hearing the reactions of those around me after the hearing. It was to the tune of “these politicians are paranoid” and “the CEO is not even Chinese, he is Singaporean”. I understand how their stances may initially come off as red scare-esque, but some of it is actually justified.
As I mentioned previously, the CCP has a poor track-record with propaganda generally, and this may have already impacted TikTok’s content moderation, as we saw with the lack of Hong Kong protest content on the platform. This is compounded by the app’s tendency to promote content that could endanger the youth, as one congressman raised the case of a child tragically passing after participating in a choking challenge that they learned about on TikTok.3 Further, the company’s data security came under question after U.S. based journalists’ data was accessed from China, a point mentioned explicitly during the hearing.3 TikTok had initially denied that it was even possible for employees to access the journal’s data in such a fashion, but later admitted the fault, firing the four employees implicated in the scandal.4 This reveals the reality that U.S. user data is accessible from China, and in ways that diminish the credibility of TikTok data security, opening the avenue for speculation that the CCP is involved in accessing U.S. user data in much the same way.
This bipartisan agreement3 over the risk that TikTok poses to Americans is not without criticism, however. Zhou argued that issues stemming from misusing user data is not a phenomenon unique to TikTok3, citing an incident between Facebook and Cambridge Analytica, in which the political consulting firm used facebook data without consent from users to profile voters for targeting in political campaigns.5 This raises a fundamental reality of much of the politicking we witness today. Representative Cathy McMorris Rodgers touted American values like “freedom” and “human rights” during the hearing, claiming that China would never share in such ideals.3 But where are the human rights in Gaza? The U.S.’s involvement in global conflicts highlights that it is readily willing to abandon such values. What really dictates that which should be banned is that which is in the best interest of America, be it in alignment with our purported morals, or not. This real politik attitude means that restriction of freedom and government censorship are not really what led to a TikTok ban. Rather, it is the fact that a foreign adversarial government is dictating restrictions on freedoms and censorship. The U.S. government and its “allies” would rather be the censors themselves, and that brings us to the final phase in this TikTok timeline, the post-October 7th period.
Israel’s TikTok Blunder
About a year passed between Zhou’s congressional hearing and the progression of our most current ban through congress.1 During that period, the October 7th attacks on Israel occurred, and Israel’s barbaric genociding followed suit. This gave TikTok’s ban a new justification: saving face for Israel.
In an unprecedented shift in public opinion, many in the States began supporting Palestine in waves, particularly the youth. It all started with social media platforms, especially TikTok. Traditional media had long been ardent supporters of Israel in Middle East affairs, giving rise to pro-Israeli indoctrination of U.S. citizens. That, of course, was no coincidence, seeing that much of western mainstream media was, and still is, deeply influenced by zionists. Social media platforms, however, allowed for an alternative narrative to Israel operating on behalf of the West as a beacon of democracy in the Middle East. Social media contrasted the destruction of entire families and livelihoods with the supposedly moral presence of Israel in Gaza, and it left Americans scratching their heads. This was enabled by the lack of American and Israeli censorship on TikTok. The reality is that TikTok allowed the oppressed to display the American-funded catastrophes that forever changed or even took their lives, a type of free speech the U.S. government and Israel do not endorse.
All of this is to demonstrate the hypocrisy that lines every accusation against TikTok about values, freedoms, and morals. TikTok may give you the censorship of the Chinese Communist Party, but lawmakers are against this, not only because they want to prevent Chinese control of the narrative, but because they want to control it themselves.
American social media platforms like Meta’s Instagram and Facebook were already accused by Human Rights Watch of censorship against Palestinian content as early as December of 2023. The U.S. apps display censorship patterns that heavily suggest American and Israeli influence in determining what material is or is not acceptable to post.6 A divestment to U.S. owners would likely produce the same content regulation scheme on TikTok.
TikTok, as it stands, has been a source of frustrations to Zionists who are unable to control the genocide’s narrative through the app. TikTok is singled out by Zionist organizations as the vector for the shift in public opinion against Israel. Take representative Mike Gallagher, one of the top donation recipients from AIPAC7, and a passionate promoter of the bill to ban TikTok. He, in his own writing, claims that TikTok is the reason behind the American youth supporting Hamas, arguing that the CCP has control over what content Americans consume, and that it spreads content to pin citizens against America and its allies.8
Rep. Gallagher also argues in his piece that preventing a foreign entity from controlling key industries like media through a ban-or-sell situation is justified, precedented, and not a violation of first amendment rights. He does not, however, provide convincing rhetoric to support the idea that banning TikTok is not an infringement on free speech. Gallagher points to Congress’ precedent of preventing foreign entities from controlling key sectors of the American economy as a justification for the ban, along with the protections from Chinese propaganda and surveillance that a ban would afford. It is clear however, from simple analysis, that a ban or sale of TikTok to a pro-zionist entity will most likely result in an infringement on freedom of speech and an alternative form of propaganda.
The ownership of a social media platform dictates the boundaries of acceptable content. A Chinese-run social media app has its own profile of censorship, where sensitive topics like Tiananmen Square face removal or shadow bans. An American-run social media app deems pro-Palestinian content to be unacceptable, resulting in removal or shadow bans. The forced transfer of ownership of TikTok to American zionists results in an altered censorship profile, and therefore the limitation of speech relating to Palestinians. So, a ban would in fact limit free speech, regardless if Congressional precedent exists for such actions.
And limiting free speech is ultimately the purpose. When proponents of the ban include heavy AIPAC donation recipients like Rep. Gallagher, a clear intention manifests itself–the ban-sell ultimatum of TikTok is created, in part, to replace Chinese censorship with zionist censorship.
Gallagher himself claims that Chinese algorithmic manipulations are the cause of the shift in public opinion. He intentionally miscategorizes the support for Palestinians as homogenous support for Hamas, in an attempt to radicalize the image of pro-Palestine youth. He props up China as the orchestrators of public opinion change through control of TikTok’s algorithm, implying that support for “antisemitism”, “anti-Israel”, and “anti-West” themes is but a product of the algorithm. The result of this argument is that, if the algorithm were to be “corrected”, say by a group of American investors, the “Chinese made” support for Palestinians would disappear.
The reality is, however, that any human with conscience would recognize Israel’s actions in Gaza as condemnable. So, is a pro-Palestinian TikTok audience a result of Chinese censorship, or is it just the natural human reaction to tyranny and oppression? In a completely moderatively neutral environment, people who are not invested in the zionist cause would be expected to support Palestinians, at least on a humanitarian level, due to the sheer devastation that the IDF has inflicted.
So, an implication from Gallagher’s argument is that the solution to the perverted “support of Hamas” is having American control over the algorithm. But, due to the fact that support for Palestinians is not artificial, this leaves Zionists only the option of creating a false depiction of the Gaza war–one in which Israel’s torrent is entirely moral. It seems like they are getting their chance to do just that.
Sources
- https://apnews.com/article/tiktok-timeline-ban-biden-india-d3219a32de913f8083612e71ecf1f428
- https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/emilybakerwhite/tiktok-tapes-us-user-data-china-bytedance-access
- https://www.reuters.com/technology/tiktok-ceo-face-tough-questions-support-us-ban-grows-2023-03-23/
- https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2022/dec/22/tiktok-bytedance-workers-fired-data-access-journalists
- https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-64075067
- https://www.hrw.org/report/2023/12/21/metas-broken-promises/systemic-censorship-palestine-content-instagram-and
- https://truthout.org/articles/tiktok-exposed-youth-to-genocide-in-gaza-is-that-why-electeds-want-it-banned/
- https://www.thefp.com/p/tik-tok-young-americans-hamas-mike-gallag
