the Voice of
The Communist League of Revolutionary Workers–Internationalist
“The emancipation of the working class will only be achieved by the working class itself.”
— Karl Marx
the Voice of
The Communist League of Revolutionary Workers–Internationalist
“The emancipation of the working class will only be achieved by the working class itself.”
— Karl Marx
Feb 3, 2025
On the night of January 18, TikTok went dark. At least for half a day….
Both parties in Congress had passed a law requiring that the app be sold to a U.S. company or be banned. After the Supreme Court ruled that this law should go into effect, TikTok shut down.
TikTok gathers up as much personal information as it can. It profits by selling that information to advertisers. And it’s designed to be addictive—the more time people watch it, the more profit its owners can make.
But that’s not why Congress banned it—no, they say that it is owned by a Chinese company, and maybe the Chinese government can access all this personal information of Americans!
This is just one more part of the anti-China propaganda war. As if China is the threat to our freedom and our privacy! U.S. companies like Meta (that owns Instagram and Facebook) and Google (that owns YouTube) do the same thing. And in this country, it’s the U.S. government, not the Chinese government, that has used that information to track and arrest people who they consider a threat.
Seeing an opportunity, Trump swooped in and “saved” TikTok—even though last time he was president, he supported a ban. But he only saved it for 75 days—the law that TikTok must be sold to a U.S. company is supposed to be enforced after that time.
Maybe a U.S. company will buy it. Or maybe it will be shut down, and TikTok’s U.S. competitors will pick up the market. Or maybe Trump will decide to just ignore this law.
Whatever the outcome, none of these people are looking out for working people. Not the kajillionaires who own every social media company; not Trump who poses as TikTok’s savior; and not the politicians of both parties who are trying to gear us up to see China as our enemy. No, all of these people are our real enemies—and they’re right here in the good old U.S.A!