TikTok a threat to the very foundations of society

While in Las Vegas recently, I spent a little bit of time at Caesars Palace. Like everything in Vegas, Caesars is an oversized and tacky remake of something far more grand – in this case ancient Rome. Perhaps it was the location, but a few times people I were talking about started going sideways talking about the crumbling of society and suggesting that we were living in the midst of a modern-day epoch change like the fall of the Roman Empire.

What was the impetus for this fairly depressing prognostication, you might ask? None other than TikTok and its corrosive effect on society.

A few people I spoke with brought up some interesting statistics about different age group’s views on current issues. In particular, the view of different age groups on the conflict in Gaza. Don’t worry, this article isn’t a party-political broadcast for Israel – my opinions on that conflict are very obvious. Taking personal viewpoint aside, it was fascinating to hear that for the 18-35 age group, also known as the TikTok generation, the view of the conflict is very clear: they side utterly with the viewpoint that sees Israel as the aggressor and the colonial usurper. For those over 35, there is an overwhelming awareness that it is a very complex issue in a highly complicated region and that the history of the situation means that Israel is doing (unfortunately) what it must.

Obviously, these demographic differences aren’t cut and dry, and there are dissenting viewpoints across the ages, but the statistics are very clear. Which leads us to the obvious question: why is it that there is such a marked change in viewpoints between the two generations? The title says it all: TikTok.

Now we have heard for years about the toxic effect that social media can and does have on people’s mental health. We’ve heard the horrifying stories of Facebook and Instagram’s algorithms sending pictures of hangman’ nooses to depressed teenage girls and we know that these platforms’ algorithms reinforce negative perspectives on impressionable individuals.

But, while I firmly believe that Facebook is a toxic platform that causes harm, it is absolutely critical that we as a society understand just how different the playing field is when it comes to TikTok.

Facebook’s founder and CEO, Mark Zuckerberg is a manipulative man-child whose prior claim to fame before Facebook was allowing his dormmates to rate their female peers at Harvard University’s hotness. He’s at best a socially awkward individual with an outsize view of tech’s ability to do good and, at worst a sociopath. But be clear: Facebook is a corporation in the US and when things get really sideways, Zuck gets called to testify to Congress. We might not particularly like US-style democracy but at least it’s democracy.

TikTok, on the other hand, has no such governing limiters. TikTok is owned by ByteDance, a Chinese company. And even outside of any conspiracy theories, it seems obvious that there are very strong links between ByteDance and the Chinese Communist Party.

And so, you may well ask, why does the CCP care about peoples’ views of the Gaza conflict? They don’t give a toss, what they do care about, however, is Western social cohesion. Specifically, they aim to undermine this social cohesion as much as possible in order to create a groundswell of division. With a simple turning the dial on TikTok’s algorithm, the CCP can fundamentally change the sort of content that Westerners see and, by extension, their worldview.

Now of course the obvious answer to this is education. We’re always confronted with things that are bad for our physical or mental health – cigarettes, illicit drugs, speeding – and we generally have the sense to curb the inclination to do these things. It’s a valid perspective, the best way to react to external forces trying to poison the mind of our citizens is to give those citizens the tools to avoid that poison.

But we simply don’t have time to rely on those longer-term solutions. There is an absolute epidemic of social unease that began with Covid, continues with the Ukraine war and is now finding a happy home in the Gaza conflict. All of this leads into the next US Presidential election which, without resorting to hyperbole, could be the start of a civil war and a fundamental fracturing of Western society.

The West needs to ban TikTok immediately. Ironically, this is exactly what the CCP has done with Western social media platforms as its way of ensuring Chinese citizens only get a CCP-flavoured view of the world and don’t get any silly ideas about Western-styled democracy. On this one, we need to take a leaf out of China’s book.

TikTok is working by stealth and the changes it’s causing in society are creeping up on us without the clear understanding of our traditional decision-makers and gatekeepers. It’s easy to understand that methamphetamine is a corrosive product on our society, far more difficult to do so with TikTok.

But have no doubt, TikTok intends to destabilize the entire Western democratic establishment. It’s interesting to live in the midst of Epochal collapse but far more pleasant to avoid that collapse outright.