The irony of this entire shitshow is TikTok was skewered for not being open enough to political content in the west, leading to regional moderation changes that

The irony of this entire shitshow is TikTok was skewered for not being open enough to political content in the west, leading to regional moderation changes that made politics and risk of influence possible on the platform. If TikTok was allowed to operate like Douyin in China - largely apolitical - then much of current worries could have been averted. Chinese style censorship can be useful and complementary to existing partisan platforms. Sometimes you want an apolitical space for impressionable demographics. Overall I still find TikTok pushes less politics to my feed for my interests. I'm anticipating a future where foreign platforms like TikTok are just webapps and can't be banned without implementing great firewall. What will countries do then.