TikTok stands center-stage amongst xenophobic political theater

Abhiram Prathipati, Contributing Writer

A very significant event in American internet regulation occurred on March 23. 

Congress summoned the TikTok CEO, Singaporean-born Shou Zi Chew, to discuss the role of the app in American society and alleged Chinese involvement in it. 

There has been a bipartisan push to ban TikTok recently because of the ties the company possesses towards China and the Chinese government — namely revolving around it being a subsidiary of Bytedance, a corporation based in Beijing and the Cayman Islands. 

Concerns about privacy for data, effects on children and so on remain relevant concerns described nominally by the hearing. However, this quickly degenerated into what was simply racist and xenophobic political theater. 

Chew was asked incredibly inflammatory questions about China — a country that he, himself is not even a citizen of, beyond diasporic, ancestral ties. Even when this was acknowledged, they still went ahead with such attacks — most notably Rep. Dan Crenshaw, R-TX, provided accusations of espionage even when Chew stated that data is stored on American soil and that he is Singaporean. 

Mass illiteracy and hypocrisy was shown by the members of Congress who are supposed to be representing us. Many were not even aware of basic functions of our internet, a crucial tool for communication in the 21st century. 

Rep. Buddy Carter, R-GA, did not even understand how filters on TikTok worked, or the basics of facial recognition technology — yet spoke with the utmost confidence and hostility during the hearing. Even their responses on basic information regarding the structure of Bytedance was incorrectly stated by politicians, such as Rep. Debbie Lesko, R-AZ. 

Similarly, questions were asked about data storage: This is framed in a dishonest manner. Most of the standards utilized were already industry standards within the U.S. The allegations against TikTok regarding Chinese control, espionage and domination are simply projection: They inaccurately portray U.S. data regulations — U.S. corporations collect your data en masse, alongside the government too. 

We also have a strong history of espionage in the modern era at large, such as the Patriot Act. Simply put, we possess zero moral ground regarding it and are projecting this upon that company at large. 

Another key fact is that social media and TikTok has been a tool to mobilize people for politics, especially progressive politics. They want to close it for this reason, and overall one can say our free internet is tied to our status as a global hegemon. In fact, it is proposed as law to have mechanisms to fine or jail people who use virtual private networks to access banned sites — even up to 20 years. 

Sen. Mark Warner, D-VA, claims it cannot be abused and that they must be engaged in “sabotage and subversion” of communication, but there is much precedent in U.S. history to say such acts can be open to and rife with abuse. These are the same things we accuse China of, as they possess anti-VPN laws and internet censorship — even then, enforcement is not strong there. Many politicians, such as Rep. Alexandria Ocasio Cortez, D-N.Y., have made similar arguments. 

It is simply a line of moral panics that have fallen in line with various moral and political panics in the past, for example anti-Asian racism and anti-communism. America has had a tense history with the imperialization of the Asian world, and same for Europe at large. This is tied immensely to politics of the security state and of nationalism, to provoke hatred of other nations and peoples. 

Chew was here to represent TikTok, not China or the Chinese Communist Party, yet on a bipartisan basis, there was a wide agenda being pushed rather than valid criticism of modern day social media. 

This needs to be recognized with regards to the discourse at hand. Some may say “oh, this is about the CCP [Chinese Communist Party],” but we had a similar orientalist paranoia about the Japanese and the rise of Japan during the ‘80s — culminating in many hate crimes — and they were a nominally liberal democratic, constitutional monarchy that was pro U.S. on the international level. 

Overall, we need to recognize that this is ultimately political theater — a very insidious one. We should oppose the efforts to censor and demonize the internet in an unjust manner, with no strong reasoning.