This piece was written for the January 2025 edition of Postscripts, Shamillah Wilson’s monthly round-up of what’s been happening in feminist circles, her work, and some recommended reading suggestions.
Accusations of Chinese interference in U.S. politics were the ostensible reason for the recent U.S. banning/unbanning of Tiktok, the popular short-form video platform owned by Chinese company ByteDance. Prospects of the shutdown saw a flurry of digital migration to RedNote by hundreds of thousands of Americans, many of whom derive an income from TikTok.
Ironically, Xiaohongshu (RedNote in Mandarin) means ‘little red book’ and is owned by another Chinese company, Shanghai-based Xingyin Information Technology Ltd. An unexpected consequence of the influx of “Tiktok refugees” to RedNote has been the direct connection of many ordinary U.S. and Chinese citizens. This has promoted positive exchanges and real-time insights into life in China, bucking the typical anti-China propaganda.
This example of citizen interaction across borders demonstrates the best of social media: its potential for forging connections and democratising communication. But its pitfalls and dangers, like misinformation and cyberbullying, have also been amply revealed. The impact of misinformation spread on social media platforms was highlighted by Maria Ressa, CEO and co-founder of Filipino media company Rappler and winner of the 2021 Nobel Peace Prize, who on a visit to South Africa in November 2024 warned that “Technology, once seen as a great equaliser, is now a weapon wielded against the very foundations of democracy”.
Digital sovereignty
On the one hand, America accuses China of manipulation through social media platforms, and on the other U.S. companies Facebook and Google left China after refusing to abide by Chinese law which emphasises social stability and resists attempts by “U.S. and other foreign governments to use these platforms as a form of destabilisation”. Facebook refused to prevent the use of Facebook groups by terrorists when it was found they had been used to organise the terrorist attacks in Xinjiang in 2017.
“China has maintained its digital sovereignty saying that the U.S. government uses social media platforms as weapons,” says Ben Norton, investigative journalist, analyst and founder and editor of the Geopolitical Economy Report. He points out that while most countries rely on “U.S. Big Tech apps like Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube … China has its own.”
The reliance on external media channels renders many countries vulnerable. Imperial forces have used false media and misinformation, even before the advent of the internet and social media, to manipulate less powerful countries and cause civil strife and even regime change. In the conversation featured above, Daniel Dumbrill, a Canadian businessman and social commentator based in China, reflects on how his ancestral home, Guyana, still bears the scars of U.S. and British interference in the 60s. Through the media, they instigated conflict between Guyanans of African and Indian descent to provoke the overthrow of the first post-independence government which was pro-Soviet Union to impose a more West-leaning government. Contemporary history holds many such examples.
Flagrant media manipulation and censorship have ramped up over the past fifteen months. Fearing security breaches, channel shutdowns and, in some cases, demonetisation, many progressive content developers have sought alternatives to WhatsApp, X and YouTube. Channels like Telegram, Substack and Bluesky are some alternatives. Please share others you are using, with us.
