Opinion | TikTok, America turns back the clock
By Philip Yeung, university teacher
PKY480@gmail.com
America's dirty shoe has finally dropped. By a vote of 352 to 65, or 81% of congress members, US legislators have decided to kill off TikTok. The bill gives its Beijing-based owner ByteDance six months to find a buyer or face a ban in America. TikTok's days look numbered. The pretext is national security. The subtext is its Chinese ownership.
As a business, TikTok had $20 billion US in revenue in 2023, and is expected to hit $30 billion in 2024. It is currently valued at $200 billion for an app introduced to the US only in 2018. It corrals 170 million addicted users. On its ecosystem depends the income of over seven million US businesses and over 300,000 jobs. Millions of lives have become better because of it. Its genius is its ability to reach huge audiences even if the content creator is a non-influencer. A runaway favorite with the younger demographic, it is a better product than American-owned Instagram. Competition is progress. Suppression is regression.
This bill is laughably titled "Protecting Americans from Foreign-Controlled Applications Act". What protection? The US user data is safely stored away in servers controlled by Texas-based software company Oracle and thus protected by a "data firewall". Sara Jacobs, a Democrat who cast a dissenting vote said "Not a single thing we heard in today's classified briefing was specific to TikTok", i.e. the issues applied to all social media platforms. Vaporizing TikTok doesn't help anybody, but hurts a lot of people. User privacy and national security are just a red herring. The bill is a hoax. It tells the world that America is a loser clutching at straws. The Chinese has produced a better product. Over the years, while China has progressed, America has regressed, becoming mean-spirited and resorting to high-handed and underhanded tactics.
Congress is disrespecting its electorate. An opinion writer on US TODAY has taken the trouble to publish the names of legislators who voted for the bill, state by state. They can't hide behind their collective folly anymore. Their day of reckoning is coming.
Why the ban? Why now? I suspect two things: First, TikTok's role in giving voice to millions of Americans shamed by their country's complicity in the Gaza genocide. Americans can find no outlet to vent their anger through the Jewish-controlled conventional media, and the US keeps wielding its veto in the UN Security Council to quash any international call for a ceasefire to stop the mass slaughter of innocent civilians in Gaza. TikTokers have taken up this asymmetric fight. Ouch! They must have stung Israeli enablers into panic. TikTok, a thorn at their side, shows that you can be pro-Jewish without being pro-Israeli government, or pro-Netanyahu. But speaking truth to power carries consequences.
What an irony! A Chinese invented media platform is now the primary channel for freedom of expression in America, for airing views unpalatable to its politicians.
Second, Sino-phobia strikes again. America has gone berserk with its China-bashing. China is guilty whenever America says it is guilty. Case closed. China hatred is now a political orthodoxy. To US politicians, China is a political gift that keeps on giving. Poor economy, blame China. Climate change, blame China; pandemic, blame China. US political players are "sinoholics"—addicted to being anti-China.
The most notorious China hawk is ex-speaker Nancy Pelosi. This Witch of World War III will not rest until she has provoked China into conflict, first over Taiwan and now over TikTok. She is instrumental in unifying the partisanship-paralyzed Congress in crucifying China. Sheer insanity!
The American "rules-based" order is a sham. When the rules don't fit America's agenda, they moved the goalposts. As the protagonist in House of Cards put it: "The deck is stacked, and the rules are rigged." Any way you slice it, forcing Chinese owners to sell off TikTok is highway robbery.
But is this the endgame? Not quite. The bill now goes before the Senate. If it clears the bill, Biden has promised to sign it into law. Not so fast. A legal challenge looms, and may drag on for years. Fortunately, 2024 is an election year. Biden and his cohorts will taste young voters' wrath. TikTokers, no shrinking violets, won't take this lying down. They might send the hypocrites packing. Expect democracy's messiest fight of the century. Its death warrant may be signed, sealed, but not yet delivered. TikTok may live to fight another day.
TikTok has scrambled American politics. Being a knee-jerk China-hater may not be enough this time. Biden is already facing backlash against his complicity in the Gaza genocide. Trump is lurking as a pro-TikToker and may reap the electoral benefit. Will the bill seal Biden's fate? Don't bet against it.
The views do not necessarily reflect those of DotDotNews.
Read more articles by Philip Yeung:
Opinion | Come on, Ambassador Burns, take a Viagara or two
Opinion | The Gaza Genocide—the beginning of the end of the American era
Opinion | The Ugly American is a twin brother to the Ignorant American
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