U.S.’s TikTok bill is a fully expected geopolitical reaction
Keeping the hegemony in place means blatant actions against rising rivals, in this case China
The bill that would force ByteDance to sell or shutdown TikTok is one of a few bipartisanship points in an increasingly divided U.S. Congress. (Unsplash/Collabstr)
Last April, I penned an article explaining why banning the social media app, TikTok, would be an ineffective measure in reforming the broader digital landscape. In that piece, I had expressed what the true motivation for the heavy scrutiny against TikTok was — a front for the geopolitical tensions between the U.S. and China.
TikTok being owned by Chinese firm ByteDance does not sit well with the U.S., with the claim that it represents a national security and surveillance threat being touted by both Democrats and Republicans. Evidently, this bipartisan claim held enough support that the U.S. Senate passed a bill, 79 to 18 votes, on April 24 calling for ByteDance to sell the platform in nine months to an American company or else get barred from operating in the U.S. market.
It should be mentioned that the bill is part of a $95 billion aid package for Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan. The amendment being attached to the broader aid shows how U.S. politicians view TikTok as a serious enough threat to warrant being side-by-side in legislation financing two of the biggest regional conflicts of the last two years.
It is also the third piece in the U.S.’s current geopolitical trifecta — containing Russia’s influence in Europe, maintaining control in the Middle East, and pushing back against China’s global influence. The U.S. world hegemony is to preserve its reign via hard and soft power.
China — through its Belt and Road Initiative along with other international programs and partnerships — has been on a continuous rise as both a regional and global superpower for the last decade or so. This puts the country in direct conflict with the U.S., which has been the sole hegemonic power since the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991. This has led to concerns of a “New Cold War” breaking out, if it already has not entered the nascent stages, between the two countries.
TikTok represents a digital and economic front of this semi-silent conflict. Congress’ charge is that TikTok is a disinformation hub and a means to steal citizens’ personal information, something that U.S.-based platforms are also doing in partnership with western governments or on their own.
Targeting TikTok specifically is deliberately trying to force the platform into the U.S. information gathering and control fold, even if that means violating the free-market capitalist ideology that is normally so integral to the “American dream” and permits corporations to collect and sell user data to begin with.
The U.S.’s age is not eternal. The European colonial empires lost their influence after the world wars and the Soviet Union dissolved in the early 1990s. There is no hard date on any calendar that will declare the U.S. empire officially “dead,” but there are indicators that forecast what can be expected.
China and the other BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa) states have been projected to represent the next generation of economic powerhouses for decades at this point. A coalition of global south countries’ potentials are swelling just beneath the surface of the international landscape as China currently leads the pack with seemingly endless opportunities for further expansion and its economy to become the top economy on Earth.
When an ossified superpower is faced with its own end, no matter how close or far it may be, it will lash out however it sees fit. Coercing ByteDance into selling TikTok or getting it banned is one such snipe and certainly will not be the last. Expect more, and increasingly intense, standoffs soon.
