Inter-imperialist Conflict and Class Struggle:Why Is the US Ruling Class Trying to Ban TikTok?
March 24— The US Congress has fast-tracked a bill to ban the Chinese-owned social-media app TikTok or force its sale to a US company. They claim it’s to “protect Americans and the national interest” from the Chinese Communist Party. This fearmongering promotes anti-communism and tries to prepare the US masses for world war.
Through TikTok, they say, China could collect and misuse vast amounts of users’ data. However, the bill provides no industry-wide protection for such data. Data like names, ages, locations, browsing and purchase histories, medical and banking information, passwords, and even keystrokes.
US imperialist companies like Facebook and Google already collect such data and sell them to the highest bidder – even China. So what’s the real reason? To let Elon Musk or another US capitalist buy a valuable property at a fire-sale price?
Or is it more sinister than that?
By controlling most mainstream media, the ruling class can decide what they will cover and how they will cover it. This is how they can make workers believe that their own class enemy will rule over them with their best interest at heart.
In contrast, Twitter (now X) and TikTok are social-media platforms where everyday people exchange ideas and learn from one another.
Twitter has helped people to communicate during protests and civil unrest. That’s why the Egyptian government blocked Twitter during the 2011 protests. It’s where people whose voices have been purposely ignored or silenced could speak out against systemic injustices.
That’s why Elon Musk purchased Twitter in 2022, renamed it X, and gutted it. He fired over 80% of Twitter employees and rolled back many of its previous pro-people practices. Hate speech soared so much that several major brands pulled their ads from the platform.
Musical.ly merged with TikTok in 2018 and TikTok became Musical.ly with a new name and logo. People posted their renditions of songs. Later, they added choreography. Then in 2020 people started using TikTok to connect and create community. People continued to sing and dance but also shared their everyday lives.
From George Floyd to Gaza
When police murdered George Floyd during the pandemic lockdown in 2020, Twitter lit up in the US and around the world. People wrote about racism, its history, its link to capitalism, and the need to act. Reports of demonstrations everywhere circulated. They led to more, bigger multi-racial demonstrations and confrontations with the police. There were twitter conversations about revolution, socialism, Communism, the history of slavery and rebellions, and more.
That was also a turning-point for TikTok, which became a tool for masses to educate one another. Today you can find just as many “influencers” sharing history that is purposely left out of classrooms as those inviting you to dance with them. In 2020, too, Trump first tried to force a sale of TikTok. Various government entities have tried to control or completely ban TikTok since then.
Now, four years later, is Gaza. Palestinians are using TikTok to speak for themselves and show the world the atrocities the Israeli bosses are committing. For example, TikTok showed the Israeli “Defense” Forces’ live shelling and carnage inside Gaza hospitals.
During the recent massive farmers’ protests in India, the Indian government shut down the internet and all social media. Pro-Palestine activists in the US are finding their accounts sabotaged in more subtle ways.
The TikTok ban has nothing to do with China getting our information. This is about trying to control the working masses of the whole world and what we think. They are trying to put the genie back in the bottle. They cannot!
The rulers are afraid for the masses to see the truth. This shows us that ICWP and Red Flag have a more and more crucial role to play!
Communists should use social media where possible, especially apps like Twitter and TikTok, popular among young people. These supplement our website ICWPRedFlag.org and our print newspaper.
But our organizing relies fundamentally on personal relationships. Relationships that don’t depend on any app or platform. These relationships will enable us to continue organizing for communist revolution under all conditions, as comrades in Gaza do today. Such relationships will become the foundation of communist society.
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