US government attacks Freedom of Speech, Bans TikTok

Mukesh Devrari 

The United States government decided to ban TikTok, citing national security threats. However, it was not made clear what was the danger. Chinese private company Bytedance owns TikTok. The US government accuses TikTok of having direct links with the Chinese government and of conducting propaganda operations in the United States. The US regime did not provide any evidence. Americans were bombarded with propaganda to believe that their government was telling them the truth. 

The operation of TikTok has been scrutinized for a long period of time, but Americans could not find any evidence of any wrongdoing. However, it did not deter American lawmakers from banning the world’s most successful social media company. In fact, the US government did not ban TikTok. First, it tried to blackmail the Chinese owners to sell it to American owners. They wanted to force Chinese private companies to share their technology and algorithms to be shared with Americans. Bytedance has made it clear that it would prefer to close down its operations in the US rather than share the tech with others.

The US actions might not have any direct implications, but they will nudge other countries to view American social media companies in a different light. Now the question is if a technologically sophisticated country like the United States feels threatened because a Chinese social media company has succeeded in the United States and fears political interference. Should it not nudge third-world countries to think on similar lines? Why countries in the Indian subcontinent, Asia, or Africa should display the same sensitivity and scrutinize Western companies and their links to the American government to achieve foreign policy objectives? There can be some implications of US actions. 

First, the US social media companies will be scrutinized globally. Every nation-state will try to protect and safeguard itself from foreign interference and intervention, as Americans have done by banning TikTok. We have seen the role of social media in bringing color revolutions in the Middle East. It is not known how much of it was natural conflagration and churning in those countries and how much of it was pushed by Americans through their social media companies. 2ndly, monopoly is not a good thing, and competition is always good for customers and countries. A handful of companies control the US social media market. All of them targeted President Trump and did everything to mislead the American people. 

Elon Musk purchased Twitter, renamed it X, and saved the US democracy by bringing free speech to the country. Otherwise, Google manipulated search results to hide the wrongdoings, failures, and crimes of the Biden administration and tried to hide or eliminate the existence of Trump from the internet. After the killing of TikTok in America, the same group once again will be in charge of the entire communication system on the internet. They would manipulate and gang up together to impose their will on people and deny them freedom of speech. 3rdly, American social media companies refuse to recognize internet sovereignty and argue that they are mere platforms, not traditional media houses. They carry user-generated content, and they cannot be held responsible in any way for the things shared by users. The United States wants the whole world to accept it but refuses to take the same argument in the case of TikTok. 

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