TikTok targeted again by anti-China hysteria

A new wave of paranoia is being whipped up concerning the popular short-video application TikTok, which is owned by Chinese company ByteDance.

TikTok, whose Chinese version is known as Douyin, is the most popular social media app among young people and the single most downloaded app in the world. It has long been subject to baseless accusations that it has "links" to the Chinese government. This culminated in a failed attempt by the administration of former United States president Donald Trump to force the company to sell its US-based operations.

However, in a new wave of mass hysteria, US agencies such as the FBI and the Federal Communications Commission have called for a ban, baselessly branding TikTok as a "national security threat". In addition, some state legislatures have banned the app from official use, and a bipartisan group in Congress has introduced a bill in another attempt to ban it.

The politicized obsession with TikTok is typical of the irrational anti-China hysteria in the US right now. The app is opposed not on the basis of any evidence, but solely upon the fact that it is Chinese.

US politics is known for its invocation of drama, mass hysteria and exaggerated attacks on the characters of people or organizations as a point-scoring exercise. Even beyond the China field, political candidates regularly engage in blistering accusations and attacks against each other, often void of any evidence, which has contributed to the growing polarization and destabilization of US politics.

There is a bipartisan effort to "get into the mud". As such, foreign policy morphs into domestic US politics as it becomes a tool of political gain by US politicians.

Beginning with the Trump administration, the subject of China has subsequently morphed into a national mass hysteria, with politicians deliberately invoking irrational paranoia regarding Beijing in order to win votes and manufacture geopolitical confrontation in the name of securing US hegemony.

China is baselessly accused of "spying" on Americans through various technologies or exerting malign political influence behind the scenes. Such accusations are never proved but are used on a government level to justify protectionist and embargo policies in the name of "national security".

This politically motivated paranoia has now spread to TikTok. Despite the fact that its worldwide success poses no threat to the US whatsoever, and that it is strictly apolitical and its technology serves no strategic purposes, it has attracted such contempt purely on the basis of being Chinese.

The so-called "fears" and "concerns" raised toward it are not sincere, but are politically motivated and demonstrative of the "attack "culture of US politics. No matter what China does or achieves, it will be subject to such attacks by the US, because such attacks are rooted in opportunism and not facts. It is a logic of "guilt by association", and the mainstream media subsequently work to spread these narratives.

US-led attacks on TikTok speak volumes about how wildly the US has pursued its campaign against China, across the board. While the apparent goal of the US on the international stage is to attempt to contain China's rise, this sentiment, on a domestic level, translates into a continued whipping up and use of fear that individual politicians take advantage of.

Even though the current presidential administration itself shows no interest in banning TikTok, as this does not serve its strategic goals, the game of US politics means that the merry-go-round of paranoia continues as others seek votes. TikTok has never done anything wrong, but when did opportunistic legislators care about that?

The author is a British political and international relations analyst.