It does sound pretty moralist to me. From what I’ve read so far, china first and foremost has a responsibility to their own people. They generally act as voice of reason in the world but that is not their main concern. If selling tiktok, which is also owned privately to a large portion afaik, helps them domestically and keeps the US and other nato hounds off their back for more time, that is what I would do as well. Also xiaohongshu has made significant progress in the west and will probably get even more people on once the sale is through.
I read about k visas but I didnt read much criticism of it, while I also think western criticism of communist states is rarely valid or founded in reality to begin with. I think they’re trying to gain talent and keep a flood of refugees from “1st world” countries from happening. I think I’m also excluded from that one iirc. I also think a large portion of the western citizens are in fact petit bourgoisie, which is the most reactionary class and who also complain the loudest. For that reason, it is important to understand how being a fugitive actually works. People who come from the global south to germany will walk days and nights, get put into concentration camps, drown in the ocean, make it here through sheer dumb luck, get harassed to learn the language, are not being allowed to work and more harassed because they are not working. Then they die when german citizens burn down their refugee camps or kill them on the street.
I think it is important for us to view the material conditions and apply correct dialectical thought. China is not forced to help anyone outside its own borders and it is arming the enemies of israel afaik. that they’re not also taking a loud stance might just be their strategic way of not drawing more attention to themselves.
The US is going to turn TikTok into another consent-manufacturing machine and that’s dangerous for China.
They could have just let it get banned. This would raise the contradictions within the US while also giving the US what it wanted i.e. no more TikTok counterculture.
Even if I accept that communists shouldn’t care about anyone outside their national borders, this isn’t even strategically sound.
The US is going to turn TikTok into another consent-manufacturing machine and that’s dangerous for China.
That will only apply to US based data and not the global version. Check this analysis from marketwatch newsmedia:
It’s true that ByteDance will no longer oversee daily content recommendations. Oracle will, easing the U.S. government’s most immediate security concerns. But China will retain residual control over TikTok’s algorithms. It has the freedom to set the scope of the license, determine the frequency of updates and decide whether the U.S. version can keep pace with the global one. Far from diminishing China’s influence, the deal risks entrenching it.
With this agreement, the fear of Chinese access to Americans’ data or direct manipulation of algorithms may fade. But it will be replaced by a subtler and more enduring risk: technological dependence on China, which retains a chokehold on TikTok’s powerful recommendation engine. The Trump administration has simply traded one vulnerability for another.
Manufacturing consent within the US is still worse than just letting TikTok get banned, and I don’t see any benefits for letting the US have another propaganda outlet to propagandize its people.
Manufacturing consent within the US is still worse than just letting TikTok get banned, and I don’t see any benefits for letting the US have another propaganda outlet to propagandize its people.
What if Tiktok getting banned will hurt other Tiktok users outside of the USA? In other words, what if Tiktok’s refusal to negotiate, which will lead to a ban, will open the scenario of the US pressuring their vassals to also silence Tiktok?
Just to put this in perspective, TikTok has 1.84 billion monthly active users (MAU) worldwide. The United States has the largest TikTok audience, with over 150 million users aprox. 8.15% are users in the United States, which is what ByteDance, owner of TikTok, sold as “TikTok US.”
China not only won what the article that I linked mentioned but also won by showing to all countries that China is willing to respect a country’s rules with their user’s data, contrary to what the US usually does. Also, China retains 1.69 billion users, plus 20% of the revenue generated by 150 million US users. All of this while releasing pressure on other non Usonian tiktok users.
I guess I could see the US following a TikTok ban with pressuring it’s sphere of influence to also ban it to “stop Chinese influence.”
But I could also see this as straining US influence within its own sphere because of how unpopular such a ban would be, and expose faultines like the Chinese EV trade war is doing. I guess they didn’t want to risk it, which is in line with China’s generally slow-and-steady conservative approach to politics.
But I could also see this as straining US influence within its own sphere because of how unpopular such a ban would be, and expose faultines like the Chinese EV trade war is doing.
Within the Global South, plenty of people are rallying the masses against the USA and Israel. Antimperialist sentiment is increasing at a great pace in the Global South and this is in great part thanks to Tiktok and other social media like Telegram. HOWEVER, US influence is still undeniably strong and the unfalsifiable doctrine explained by Michael Parenti is still active in plenty of the propaganda that the US spread through their vassals. From my perspective, this action was the best that China could have taken so far.
Fortunately, for Usonians, you still have the chance to move to Rednote. I checked rednote and the number of usonian is increasing. So… This outcome is not that bad.
I think the most likely outcome is that people leave TikTok as it gets enshitified in the US, which does still raise the contradictions as USAmericans will look outside their country and see what their government took away from them. It’ll go the way to Twitter and become a hellhole of reaction, people will leave for alternatives, and its relevance will plumet.
I still think a ban would have been better, but you’re right that it wouldn’t be without risks. This might buy time.
But they’re going to come for Rednote, and they’ll come for the fediverse too, and even liberal institutions like Wikipedia. They’re idealists and don’t believe political opposition comes from material forces; they are certain if they can just control all the cultural levers that they can turn back the tide that’s flowing against them.
It does sound pretty moralist to me. From what I’ve read so far, china first and foremost has a responsibility to their own people. They generally act as voice of reason in the world but that is not their main concern. If selling tiktok, which is also owned privately to a large portion afaik, helps them domestically and keeps the US and other nato hounds off their back for more time, that is what I would do as well. Also xiaohongshu has made significant progress in the west and will probably get even more people on once the sale is through.
I read about k visas but I didnt read much criticism of it, while I also think western criticism of communist states is rarely valid or founded in reality to begin with. I think they’re trying to gain talent and keep a flood of refugees from “1st world” countries from happening. I think I’m also excluded from that one iirc. I also think a large portion of the western citizens are in fact petit bourgoisie, which is the most reactionary class and who also complain the loudest. For that reason, it is important to understand how being a fugitive actually works. People who come from the global south to germany will walk days and nights, get put into concentration camps, drown in the ocean, make it here through sheer dumb luck, get harassed to learn the language, are not being allowed to work and more harassed because they are not working. Then they die when german citizens burn down their refugee camps or kill them on the street.
I think it is important for us to view the material conditions and apply correct dialectical thought. China is not forced to help anyone outside its own borders and it is arming the enemies of israel afaik. that they’re not also taking a loud stance might just be their strategic way of not drawing more attention to themselves.
The US is going to turn TikTok into another consent-manufacturing machine and that’s dangerous for China.
They could have just let it get banned. This would raise the contradictions within the US while also giving the US what it wanted i.e. no more TikTok counterculture.
Even if I accept that communists shouldn’t care about anyone outside their national borders, this isn’t even strategically sound.
That will only apply to US based data and not the global version. Check this analysis from marketwatch newsmedia:
Manufacturing consent within the US is still worse than just letting TikTok get banned, and I don’t see any benefits for letting the US have another propaganda outlet to propagandize its people.
Why wouldn’t a ban be better?
What if Tiktok getting banned will hurt other Tiktok users outside of the USA? In other words, what if Tiktok’s refusal to negotiate, which will lead to a ban, will open the scenario of the US pressuring their vassals to also silence Tiktok?
Just to put this in perspective, TikTok has 1.84 billion monthly active users (MAU) worldwide. The United States has the largest TikTok audience, with over 150 million users aprox. 8.15% are users in the United States, which is what ByteDance, owner of TikTok, sold as “TikTok US.”
China not only won what the article that I linked mentioned but also won by showing to all countries that China is willing to respect a country’s rules with their user’s data, contrary to what the US usually does. Also, China retains 1.69 billion users, plus 20% of the revenue generated by 150 million US users. All of this while releasing pressure on other non Usonian tiktok users.
I guess I could see the US following a TikTok ban with pressuring it’s sphere of influence to also ban it to “stop Chinese influence.”
But I could also see this as straining US influence within its own sphere because of how unpopular such a ban would be, and expose faultines like the Chinese EV trade war is doing. I guess they didn’t want to risk it, which is in line with China’s generally slow-and-steady conservative approach to politics.
Within the Global South, plenty of people are rallying the masses against the USA and Israel. Antimperialist sentiment is increasing at a great pace in the Global South and this is in great part thanks to Tiktok and other social media like Telegram. HOWEVER, US influence is still undeniably strong and the unfalsifiable doctrine explained by Michael Parenti is still active in plenty of the propaganda that the US spread through their vassals. From my perspective, this action was the best that China could have taken so far.
Fortunately, for Usonians, you still have the chance to move to Rednote. I checked rednote and the number of usonian is increasing. So… This outcome is not that bad.
I think the most likely outcome is that people leave TikTok as it gets enshitified in the US, which does still raise the contradictions as USAmericans will look outside their country and see what their government took away from them. It’ll go the way to Twitter and become a hellhole of reaction, people will leave for alternatives, and its relevance will plumet.
I still think a ban would have been better, but you’re right that it wouldn’t be without risks. This might buy time.
But they’re going to come for Rednote, and they’ll come for the fediverse too, and even liberal institutions like Wikipedia. They’re idealists and don’t believe political opposition comes from material forces; they are certain if they can just control all the cultural levers that they can turn back the tide that’s flowing against them.