Why Both the Left and the Right Don't Get the TikTok Threat

Re-upping and enhancing an essay written March 17, 2024 explaining the coming death of an evil app.

So TikTok is supposed to go dark in America on Sunday. This is a pretty shocking development. Initially it was just believed that users would not be able to download or update the app. But it turns out that the Chinese Communist-controlled company will go a step further and discontinue service altogether. And it seems that many people still don’t understand why this is happening and why it’s fantastic, as though this national security threat had not been exposed and debated endlessly for years now.

Rather than rehash why it’s entirely justified and necessary for the video-sharing site to shut down, I thought I’d just republish what I wrote about it back in March of last year. After all, we’ve received a huge surge of new subscribers over the last month and a half so it’s likely that most of our readers have not seen this piece yet, the 23rd installment of my “Axis of Genocide” series which focused on the alliance of Iran, Russia, and China in their war against free societies.

Revisiting it today, I still like how it turned out… for the most part. AI-art generating capabilities have expanded noticeably since then so I’ll update that part of the essay in particular.

I hope everyone enjoys.

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Both Left-Wing and Right-Wing People Are Missing the Threat of TikTok

On Wednesday, in a vote of 352-65, the House of Representatives passed important legislation to counter the hostile espionage efforts of a genocidal slave state against America and our allies in other free societies.

I’m referring to the bill which may result in the banning of the stupid TikTok video addiction app if its parent company (which is functionally controlled by the Chinese Communist state) does not sell it to a company based in a free society.

Consider the bi-partisan support for the bill:

Schumer is likely to feel some pressure from within his own party to move on the TikTok legislation. Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Mark Warner announced after the House vote that he would work to “get this bill passed through the Senate and signed into law.”

In a joint statement with Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida, the top Republican on the intelligence panel, Warner said that “we are united in our concern about the national security threat posed by TikTok — a platform with enormous power to influence and divide Americans whose parent company ByteDance remains legally required to do the bidding of the Chinese Communist Party.”

A question to consider: what sorts of congresspersons were among the 65 who voted against this bill, which has otherwise so unified Democrats and Republicans? Who chooses to ignore the evidence that this app is being utilized for malevolent purposes by a government comprised of people who belong in jail for their endless series of daily human rights abuses?

A red girl elephant and a blue girl donkey are kissing

Of the people on the list (comprised of 15 Republicans and 50 Democrats), tell me if you can spot anything they have in common:

• Jamaal Bowman (NY)

• Cori Bush (MO)

• Matt Gaetz (FL)

• Marjorie Taylor Greene (GA)

• Pramila Jayapal (WA)

• Barbara Lee (CA)

• Summer Lee (PA)

• Thomas Massie (KY)

• Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (NY)

• Ilhan Omar (MN)

• Ayanna Pressley (MA)

Now, why might it be that the same bill intended to counter Chinese Communism is opposed by both the most far-left pro-Hamas partisan Democrats and also the most far-right pro-Putin partisan Republicans? What the heck might be going on here? Why do the extremes of both sides want to enable the Axis of Genocide to continue to subvert America?

There are multiple reasons, but let’s consider a few answers from a writer on the left and another on the right.

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First, take a look at a piece from a progressive Substacker:

"Man and his search for meaning" on TikTok.

Tana Ganeva used the recent news about TikTok as an opportunity to repost a previous piece she did about TikTok in prison:

The government wants to ban TikTok or something. The alleged excuse is Chinese influence. The obvious real reason is the narrative that young people have been “radicalized” on Israel-Palestine by TikTok. OK, but at this point, you can be “radicalized” by reading a tepid Tom Friedman column. Why don’t we ban him instead?

Anyway like all social media TikTok is evil and has made us into digital addicts. But you cannot deny that more than any other medium it lets oppressed, suffering people transmit their stories and inner lives.

I wanted to repost a story about prison TikTok.

I like Tana quite a bit. I subscribed to her Substack because I sympathize with her leftist views on police, the justice system, and prisons — her areas of expertise. When she chooses to shift away from her specialty to other areas and embraces the standard-issue progressive position, then I get more annoyed and may send her an email expressing disagreement and trying to initiate dialogue. (I’ve done this a fair amount since Oct. 7, as you might guess…) But Tana is open-minded, decent-hearted, and an independent thinker. So while she may fall on the left, she’s still been willing to engage and listen to my arguments.

I sent her this:

"The alleged excuse is Chinese influence. The obvious real reason is the narrative that young people have been ‘radicalized’ on Israel-Palestine by TikTok."

Don't you see? These are one and the same. China is aligned with Iran and Hamas (as well as Putin and North Korea). China is intentionally putting out anti-Israel propaganda on TikTok which of course influences people.

The push to force TikTok to fully separate itself from China -- not to ban it -- has been going on for years. And what's being seen now with the amount of anti-Israel propaganda right now is just the manifestation of the problem, not the problem itself. TikTok's anti-Israel propaganda is the SYMPTOM, China's influence on the platform is the DISEASE.

She didn’t respond to my dissent, but that’s OK. I hope she writes about this more and expands her perspective on the complexity and seriousness of the threat.

Second, let’s take a look at a perspective from one of the most partisan Republican loyalists I’ve ever argued with, Peter Roff:

Roff: Press Pause in the TikTok War – Before It’s Too Late

I’ve grown very, very annoyed at Roff after attempting to reason with him over the years. But we don’t always disagree. Often he can have thoughtful political analysis when he takes off his partisan-hack hat. And I do still hold enough respect and affection for him to read his articles on occasion and hurl some honest feedback his way. He’s at least a skilled wordsmith, I’ll give him that.

I sent Roff my objections to his article, quoting each point of disagreement, paragraph by paragraph, in what was once known in the blogging era (2000-2015) as a “fisking.” Quotations from his article are in bold:

"Or maybe it’s just another large tech company gathering, analyzing, and processing our data to reach conclusions about who we are, what we buy, and why we think the way we do. It’s not pernicious, at least not in and of itself. Plenty of tech companies do likewise now. No one calls them a threat to national security."

BECAUSE THEY ARE NOT CONTROLLED BY CHINA.

"The Patriot Act, and the FISA Court. We can’t really say that any of that worked out as well as promised."

Sure it did. Another 9/11 didn't happen.

"Civil liberty concerns aside, at the debate’s core lies the following: do we want to add to the government’s existing power to break up companies or force divestitures simply because we don’t like or are frightened by who owns them?"

Yes. We have legitimate reasons to regard China and this app as serious threats.

"TikTok’s worth ultimately derives from the management team ByteDance put in place to oversee its operations, and that management team is based in China, does a successful effort to force divestiture have hidden within it the destruction of the company’s value? To put it another way, if you have to take TikTok out of China because you got China out of TikTok, do you kill the goose that lays the golden eggs?"

I'm sorry, Peter, but TikTok's value lies in its algorithm and source code, not in anyone running the company.

"That’s a lot of mixed metaphors, but what do you expect in a situation as confusing as this one? There’s no clear answer, even among people who are fully conversant in the issues involved."

This really isn't confusing at all - which is why both Democrats and Republicans can see the serious threat from an app which an enemy has control of.

"If the smart people, whoever they might be, really thought TikTok was a threat, the market would know it and respond accordingly."

Nonsense. The market tolerates people buying tons of shit that they know is bad for them, but that they don't care about because they're addicted to it. "If people really thought cigarettes were a threat, if people really thought alcohol was a threat, if people really thought fast food was a threat..."

"Instead of a ban, we’d be talking about how to finance the creation of a free world-based competitor with the same functionalities or better than the one based behind the Bamboo Curtain."

Nonsense. There already are competitors. They're called Instagram and YouTube. If TikTok does get banned, then everyone on there can just migrate to one of those platforms or another that will emerge.

"Leaving aside the hype, the other problem – as we saw with the RICO Act and the FISA Court – is that the powers inherent in statutes and institutions like them are inherently abused no matter the best intentions of those who brought them to life."

You are ignoring that the Chinese government is the one abusing their powers with the app.

"It’s not too hard to see how the arguments and authorities employed to force ByteDance to part ways with TikTok successfully could be employed in other circumstances."

What "other circumstances" are you so afraid of? TikTok, with its foreign ownership by a malevolent enemy, is the circumstance.

And Roff, I have to say, you aren't mentioning the biggest threat of TikTok. It's not that they're collecting information they shouldn't. It's that they're using the app to push their propaganda.

I'm sorry, but I don't think you know what you're talking about here at all. Seems like you're just seeing what Trump is saying and you're siding with him.

Roff has been one of the most dedicated and diligent pro-Trump loyalists I’ve ever encountered. It annoys me deeply, but I do at least respect his consistency.

A sad man worships a golden Trump idol. (Yes, had to keep this original image since it’s so amusing.)

So it’s worth pointing out Trump’s current position on the issue and where most people suspect the origin of his flip-flop from his previous opposition lies:

As Donald Trump reverses his position on potentially banning TikTok ahead of an expected House vote this week on legislation that could lead to it being blocked in the U.S., the former president has been rebuilding his relationship with a GOP megadonor who reportedly has a major financial stake in the popular social media platform.

Trump met with the donor, hedge fund manager Jeff Yass, earlier this month at a Club for Growth donor retreat in Palm Beach, Florida, on March 1.

The Club for Growth, a conservative political organization to which Yass has donated millions of dollars, has opposed anti-TikTok efforts.

It’s just so endlessly naked and shameless. The positions taken by a former president and potential future president are literally for fuckin’ sale. Seriously:

The former president, who had originally spearheaded efforts to ban TikTok during his time in the White House, reversed his stance last week, posting on his own social media platform that getting rid of TikTok would benefit Facebook and that he doesn't want that to happen, suggesting Facebook is a bigger problem for the country.

It’s simple: TikTok is a propaganda weapon being employed by the Axis of Genocide powers against free societies.

Is it thus any surprise that the perennial apologists for genocidal regimes would fall in lock-step with the needs of their masters yet again?

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To see more installments in the “Axis of Genocide” series check out the archive here:

100 Essays on Antisemitism I Wrote Over the Last 2 Years