U.S. Government Attacks Free Speech, Bans TikTok to Silence Competition

By Mukesh Devrari 

The United States government decided to ban TikTok, citing national security threats. However, it was not made clear what the actual danger was. The 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 wrongdoing. However, this did not deter American lawmakers from attempting to ban the world’s most successful social media company. In fact, the US government did not initially ban TikTok. First, it tried to pressure the Chinese owners to sell it to American companies. They wanted to force Chinese private companies to share their technology and algorithms with Americans. ByteDance has made it clear that it would prefer to shut down its operations in the US rather than share its technology with others.

The US actions might not have any direct implications, but they will likely 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 US and fears political interference, should it not nudge third-world countries to think along similar lines? Why should countries in the Indian subcontinent, Asia, or Africa not display the same sensitivity and scrutinize Western companies and their links to the American government aimed at achieving foreign policy objectives?

There can be several implications of US actions.

First, US social media companies will be scrutinized globally. Every nation-state will try to protect and safeguard itself from foreign interference and intervention, just as Americans have done by banning TikTok. We have seen the role of social media in bringing about color revolutions in the Middle East. It is not known how much of it was a natural conflagration and churning within those countries and how much of it was pushed by Americans through their social media companies.

Secondly, monopoly is not a good thing, and competition is always beneficial for consumers 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 is credited by some with saving US democracy by restoring free speech in the country. Otherwise, Google allegedly manipulated search results to hide the wrongdoings, failures, and crimes of the Biden administration and tried to erase or minimize the presence of Trump from the internet. After the removal of TikTok from the American market, the same group will once again be in charge of the entire communication system on the internet. They would manipulate and collaborate to impose their will on people and deny them freedom of speech.

Thirdly, American social media companies refuse to recognize internet sovereignty and argue that they are mere platforms, not traditional media houses. They claim to carry user-generated content and insist they cannot be held responsible for the material shared by users. The United States wants the whole world to accept this argument but refuses to apply the same logic in the case of TikTok.

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