“Book burning refers to the ritual destruction by fire of books or other written materials. Usually carried out in a public context, the burning of books represents an element of censorship and usually proceeds from a cultural, religious, or political opposition to the materials in question.”
TikTok has been one of the first platforms where while TikTok celebrities exist, people were able to access people like them who were keeping them informed. The US government is scared of that, to the point of banning it. And that’s weird.
I don’t live in the US, I live in the UK, and all I can think is “we’re probably next”. But at least we have a warning and can prepare for that.
Trying to force people over to Meta and Twitter is a prerogative, where both platforms have conveniently made recently revised policies to allow misinformation and hate speech without repercussion. This is turning towards encouraging violence and dumbing down the masses.
Watching the US government try and strongarm people into only using specific social media platforms that they profit from, and have control over, and claiming it to be “because China is stealing your data” when they, themselves, are trying to force their people onto platforms that steal their data, hasn’t been subtle.
But the removal of the US from a platform is a huge impact internationally. A huge portion, if not a majority of the content we consume, is from Americans that we follow. They’re also depriving us of the valuable experience we shared. And leading by example for governments like ours when it comes to censorship and suppression of the masses.
Watching the people of America realise that this has always been about treating them and their data like a commodity that the US government feels entitled to profit from, and seeing them actively choose to refuse that contract of exclusivity over them is a hilarious delight to witness.
It is truly gratifying to see the American people recognize that the U.S. government has been treating them and their data as a commodity of which the government is entitled to exploit the profits, and actively choose to refuse them.
Unfortunately, on the modern internet, there’s little-to-no choice to not have your data harvested by some kind of authority. However, seeing the US government go all shocked-Pikachu over their people finding an option in which the US government gets absolutely no profit or benefit from the data is a fantastic form of resistance. I don’t think everyone doing it even realises that they’re resisting.
Seeing so many over there gaining class consciousness in the wake of Luigi Mangione, and begin to actively treat their government with the contempt it deserves, was not on my bingo card for 2025.
A lot of people have moved over to Rednote – 小红书, and the content is refreshing. It’s an exciting thing to see. One country’s people – who have experience with losing platforms to government-imposed bans – meeting a country’s people – who are experiencing this for the first time. Both discovering that the other is just like them. Asking questions, and genuinely engaging with their audiences has been labelled a “cultural exchange”. One that there hasn’t been a lot of opportunity for before. At least definitely not on a scale this vast.
The world is beginning to see that none of us has been safe from propaganda. And that a people are not their government. Most people are just people living their lives. It is human to share the good with others so that we might all grow together. Watching everyone get to learn what lies have been fed to them about the other without showing resentment or blaming each other is so promising. Everyone knows they’re a victim of the control of their own government. This does not negate that there are problems that we aren’t seeing. It definitely is apparent that people in China are unable to criticise their government, whether through fear, or through a desire to remain on a platform that does not allow for such a discussion due to a strict set of community guidelines. but a lot of “TikTok Refugees” – whilst realising that some of their info has always been propagandised about China – unfortunately seem to be moving towards hero-worshipping the Chinese Government purely for not being the US government. Replacing one boot, because they realise it tastes like shit, to deepthroat another, shit-encrusted boot. It is important to remember that both are a corrupt authority that would easily kill its people out of self-preservation.
Neither country’s people can save the people of the other country just by criticising their government, yelling those injustices into another social media platform, but I believe both could benefit through the humanisation of the people living under those governments purely through seeing each other just existing authentically.
I just can’t quite fathom how people aren’t seeing that the problem isn’t WHICH government is a problem.
The problem isn’t which government is bad.
The problem is that government is bad.
When an authority of any kind dedicates time to removing access to anything that might cause their authority to come into question by those over which they have that authority, then the chances are that that authority is scared that they themselves will be recognised as unnecessary or harmful.
I don’t believe we’re far from that becoming a global realisation. And I believe they’re trying to prevent that. Because they know without power they are doomed.
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