An authoritarian government as evil as China’s having power over that platform compromises it. Tiktok escalates content that hurts western governments but downplays content critical of China. How many times have you heard about the ongoing Uyghur genocide and the over 1 million Uyghurs still imprisoned in China on Tiktok? Israel’s genocide of Palestinians is boosted everywhere because it makes America look bad. While all attention brought to work against genocide is good, it’s important to note China has their finger on the scale pushing down content against their interests. China does things just as worthy of Tiktok activism and it is ignored by the algorithm on purpose.

Decentralized social media is really the best option for public discourse in the long run.