I don’t understand this argument that China couldn’t possibly use the app to influence public opinion. The TikTok algorithm works by tagging a bunch of features onto a video. How positive is it, political bent, comedy, cat, depressive, anything. And the people running these apps can then pull levers as they see fit to change the distribution of content shown to users.
In fact in a very real sense I think it’s impossible to be neutral. Similar to running a newspaper and picking which articles are on the front page. There is no neutral outcome: the owners of a feed inevitably make editorial choices on what gets shown.
Think of it like parenting a teenager. If you be extremely disciplinarian, ban a bunch of stuff, have rigid rules, you don’t get an obedient child, you just get painful rebellion and if you quash it hard enough, you get a child ready to run away at the first notice.
The best way to deal with teenagers, is if you are cool in their eyes, then they will naturally try to copy you. This is hard for most parents, try too hard to be cool and you will be relentlessly mocked. In fact if you can’t be cool, it’s best to just be neutral and let them drift the way they drift, because if you try to impose too much, you just encourage their natural rebellious streak and get opposite results.
The Chinese government has always been in the position of the uncool parent who is trying to take control by being a disciplinarian. Thinking they can control US public through some hidden levers, is like thinking the parent secretly is making the teenager do his bidding by playing 5D chess. It is a fantasy. The US regime was more cool, maybe not as cool as actual Gen Z, but cool enough that they were not relentlessly mocked. Unfortunately this act, just exposes them as uncool after all, and makes them get relentlessly mocked. If the goal, is to win hearts and minds, US could not have scored a better own goal. That said, maybe this was going to happen anyway, the newer generation seems the most ironic and the quickest to mock existing social mores and ideals, and this act just sped up the process.
Yeah I mean idk what to tell you, your comment is 100% vibes and wavey metaphors. The reality is that China gets to control which videos get put in the FYP and there are plenty of good videos with "controversial political stance A" vs "B" to pick between based on their agenda.
In fact in a very real sense I think it’s impossible to be neutral. Similar to running a newspaper and picking which articles are on the front page. There is no neutral outcome: the owners of a feed inevitably make editorial choices on what gets shown.