The Curious Case of the TikTok Ban
How unverified partisan talking points lead well-meaning Americans to sabotage their own rights
The American Left and Right, for all of their mutual hatred, sure seem to have a lot in common at the end of the day. Both groups claim that the other can’t meme and adhere unquestioningly to their respective tribal dogmas, and both groups have their own foreign boogeymen whom they blame for all the world’s ills.
On the left, there’s Russia; every undesirable outcome in American politics is the fault of Russia. Whether it’s the victory of Donald Trump, hard evidence of Joe Biden’s corruption, or the fact that the voter base is fracturing over the situation in Gaza, it’s all Russia.
Conversely, most conservatives tend to blame everything on China. Now, I’m not trying to suggest that the Chinese Communist Party isn’t a serious threat to the West, only that the deep state spooks in charge of psychological operations in the Western security and surveillance state can utilize this fear to manipulate conservatives into supporting legislation that is not in the best interest of America.
This is exactly what I believe is happening regarding the bipartisan legislation seeking to ban the social media app TikTok.
It has become gospel in the U.S. political discourse that TikTok is a weapon of the Chinese Communist Party designed to propagandize young Americans into hating the United States.
Do I think TikTok is a grave threat to America? Maybe. Do I think that all social media is having a net negative effect on humanity? Possibly. What I am most afraid of, beyond the existence of platforms that people use of their own free will, is the precedent that would be set by allowing the federal government to ban the platform in the United States.
There’s a lot of conflicting information out there, and short of being an actual spook or a competent hacker, you’d be hard-pressed to find conclusive proof of half the claims out there regarding who exerts hidden control over what and who is harvesting data from where.
China is spying on us from more angles than we can count, and banning TikTok is like using a band-aid to treat a shotgun wound.
Greg Philips, of True the Vote/2000 Mules fame, went on his show and expressed a very extreme opinion. At minimum, he advocates for banning children from accessing the app. At maximum, he wants to see all social media banned.
Now, I understand how appealing that might sound to some of you who find social media’s impact on America to be generally negative, but if it wasn’t for social media this America first Anon community might never have existed, certainly it wouldn’t be as pervasive as it is today.
Allowing Congress to start banning social media platforms sets an extremely dangerous precedent; if we ban TikTok on the basis that China is using it to collect data and influence our children (and as far as I know, they have not produced compelling evidence of this), then what would be stopping Congress from banning Rumble, X and Truth Social on the hypothetical grounds that, say, Russia is allegedly using the platforms to harvest data and influence Americans?
Do you see the potential implications here?
From Unlikely to Certainly, Suddenly
The legislation that’s currently zipping through Congress at a dizzying pace—it was recently passed by the House with overwhelming support, and Joe Biden has promised to sign it as soon as it reaches his desk—is not limited to TikTok. It would vest in the executive branch the powers to ban a wide range of social media platforms and websites that can be said to be owned by or in service to any country deemed a foreign adversary by the United States.
There are so many obvious and troubling concerns that should be answered right away, yet surprisingly few people appear to be asking or responding to them—especially on the Right.
Since at least 2020, there has been a persistent campaign in Washington to outlaw TikTok. Trump used the threat of a ban to extract a series of concessions from TikTok about how they stored data on their American users, as well as their content moderation decisions.
Rather than granting further power to the Federal Government to lord over the internet, Trump used the art of the deal to make TikTok play ball. TikTok agreed to turn over control of American data to Oracle, and even turn over a lot of content moderation decisions to the U.S. Security State.
For years, there has been no movement on calls to outlaw TikTok. However, in recent months, there has been a noticeable increase in the urgency of these calls.
Why is that?
What happened in the last few months to turn what was once thought to be a fringe and unlikely idea—one that even TikTok thought was unlikely—into a freight train that appears ready to crush and roll over anything and everyone who gets in the way of it?
Is that not a question worth asking?
What has transpired in the past few months to transform a once fringe and unlikely idea—one that even TikTok deemed unlikely—into a freight train that seems prepared to crush and roll over anything and everyone that stands in its way?
Take a wild guess where the idea to ban TikTok first originated.
It was the product of the U.S. Security State—the CIA, the FBI, and the Pentagon—who all emphasized that permitting it to continue in its current shape poses an extremely serious risk to national security. (#)
As a rule, I am always leery when these institutions invoke the words “threat to our national security.”
Another thing that immediately sends up a red flag in my mind when I see it happen is when the establishment wings of both parties agree on something so strongly without even the slightest debate. The diminishing of the few remaining rights of the American people often follows this type of unity, almost always in the name of national security.
Previous Attempts Thwarted by Rand Paul
Last year, Congress tried to pass two bills that also sought to strengthen the government’s grip over social media: the Data Act and the Restrict Act.
Both bills, but the Restrict Act especially, unquestionably sought to empower the federal government to ban and regulate platforms extending far beyond TikTok.
Josh Hawley, a popular figure among some of you, attempted to pass a bill through unanimous consent, a process that bypasses numerous procedural obstacles and expedites its approval by the Senate. He likely hoped Kevin McCarthy would do the same in the House to send the bill to Joe Biden, who at that time had already said that he would sign it. The only reason that it didn’t happen right then and there was because Rand Paul stood up—the only member of the Senate to do so—and refused to allow that to happen.
TikTok’s CEO
Over the last four years, there’ve been multiple instances where they've summoned the CEO of TikTok to the Senate and to Congress to try to rake him over the coals, desperately trying to imply that the CCP exercises complete control over the company.
So who is this man?
Shou Zi Chew is a Singaporean—not Chinese, but I wouldn’t expect some members of Congress to know the difference. He is not a Communist idealogue; he’s a capitalist through and through, having attended the London School of Economics, worked at Goldman Sachs, and maintains all of the classic attributes of a hardcore capitalist, placing the maximization of profits above all other pursuits.
Now, is it possible that he’s secretly a CCP sympathizer? Anything’s possible, but that doesn’t mean everything is true. If it is all true, it’s really a secondary concern when you consider that, even if the CCP has 100% control over the platform and all the worst rumors were true, they can still collect all of our data from any number of apps and social media platforms.
Again, I’d like to reiterate what I’ve already said: the establishment wings of both parties, or what we colloquially refer to as the uniparty, are in total agreement on this legislation. Biden is sitting at his desk, half aware of his surroundings, just waiting to be told by his babysitters to sign this bill into law.
When is that ever a good thing?
Bipartisan Pushback Against a Bipartisan Push
Here is the New York Times from earlier this week.
House Passes Bill to Force TikTok Sale From Chinese Owner or Ban the App
The legislation received wide bipartisan support, with both Republicans and Democrats showing an eagerness to appear tough on China.
Republican leaders fast-tracked the bill through the House with limited debate, and it passed on a lopsided vote of 352 to 65, reflecting widespread backing for legislation that would take direct aim at China in an election year. (The New York Times, March 13, 2024)
Guess who those 65 no votes were? They belonged to what I would refer to as the anti-establishment left and the populist or America First right.
We saw No votes from people like Matt Gaetz, Marjorie Taylor Greene, Nancy Mace and the other Trump-supporting members of Congress who are associated with the MAGA agenda. On the one hand, you had members of the squad like AOC, Ilhan Omar, Rashida Tlaib, Ro Khanna and others who identify as progressive, and it's not the first time these unlikely bedfellows have come together.
We saw these groups come together to try and ban the continued occupation of Syria by American troops, a move that was in direct defiance of the representatives of the Military Industrial Complex, a foe with whom most career politicians choose not to butt heads.
These groups have shown a willingness to work against the political establishment but they have nowhere near enough representation in Congress to oppose a bipartisan majority when it unites on something the deep state must have.
Do you know who else came out against this legislation? Donald Trump.
Trump warned that a ban on TikTok wouldn’t accomplish much besides forcing tens of millions of Americans onto Facebook and Google, especially onto Facebook, which he pointed out has been frequently used by the U.S. government to censor the flow of information.
I don’t know how many of you who will end up reading this have used TikTok. It’s true that there is a lot of junk food media on the platform, but there’s also a tremendous amount of conservative content on the platform as well. I know this because my mother sits and watches MAGAcentric posts all day on TikTok.
That’s not to say that there isn’t a significant problem on the platform with censorship, because there is. Many in this media space have been booted from the platform, but it’s not China who is getting us de-platformed; it’s the U.S. censorship complex.
Case in point: the Osama Bid Laden letter.
A letter that described in detail the real reason why Islamic extremists hate the West was laid out in damning detail. As it turned out, they didn’t “hate us for our freedoms” or because we allowed gays to marry, but because the West, and the United States specifically, has unleashed decades of bloodshed, regime change and societal upheaval all throughout the Middle East.
If China was using TikTok to corrupt the American youth against the government, then why take down the Bin Laden letter? The answer is that it is not China but the U.S., and it’s the censorship industry that got the letter taken down.
Where did all of that apprehension regarding the consolidation of control over our social media platforms by the U.S. Security State go?
As we all should have learned during the War on Terror, when the U.S. government wishes to gain more influence over the American people, it employs the universal strategy of relentlessly frightening them with foreign threats.
This is no different.
Additional Reading:
So many enemies, so little time left to find the truth. At this point, speculation is what we have. One thing for real is that the media is our enemy and censorship is one of their weapons. Great article, once again, Ryan.
The two major political parties constitute a bipartisan dictatorship that is anchored by a shared guaranteed ballot access arrangement where both function as a controlled opposition for each other while preventing third parties from getting on the ballot to compete with both of them.