As this legislation becomes more of a reality, we're going to see more of this rhetoric from classical media. It would appear that Colbert has already begun the process of sliding to the right along with American leaders.
Under The Desk News is one of those TikTok channels that found huge momentum within the gorilla media space on TikTok. They are not even close to the most alternative or working class aligned news content on the platform. Their content is labor aligned lib coded. However, for many libs on the platform, Under The Desk News is among a reasonable portion of the news they consume.
There is nothing hypocritical about Colbert operating a TikTok channel while also genuflecting to the established anti-china orthodoxy. Colbert is a dyed-in-the-wool liberal operating within a long-standing liberal institution. There is capital to be earned on TikTok, that is the reason the show has a channel. Colbert is not some radical, ideological thinker, he is a funny man masquerading as a "Progressive". The funny political man archetype that encompasses John Oliver, Colbert, and John Stuart and others has always been about shepherding smarmy "adults in the room" liberals to a comfortable position inside the Overton Window. They are "left" coded, but only in the American political context. The position inside the window is just before the left horizon, and when the window shifts right, these jesters will be there to nudge the herd with it.
You can summarize their content into a simple three act play.
Act. 1: "Let's talk about [current event]"
Act 2: "Look at how fucked this is. I feel angry, just like you do"
Act 3: "Now that we've gotten our feelings out, I have a solution for you. Work within our existing systems. (vote, write your reps, etc.)"
Their methodology of dismantling these rotting structures might as well be summed up as "Hope and Pray". In due time, we will see the mildest skepticism about the TikTok ban washed away from classical media reporting.
The TikTok "Ban" is about many things. Media control is absolutely one of those things. It doesn't need to be direct manipulation of the content. It can simply be the enshitification of the platform that will drive people back to established news outlets. The genocide in Gaza represents the most powerful incarnation of TikToks gorilla media. While anecdotal, I know people in my orbit who, recited emerging western narratives, only to then turn around and tell me "I think that was all a lie, the stuff I'm seeing on TikTok doesn't align with what I'm being told" or "I don't even know what to believe at this point, but I know that its only getting worse for Palestinians".
Oh sure, I believe that as well. I think the goals and objectives of a divested TikTok could change more rapidly or in a more neoliberal trajectory under the control of someone like Bobby Kotick for example. Though, my greater point is that enshittification will obfuscate the process of driving people off the platform and back into the welcoming arms of established western media sources. If the content is there, but the experience of accessing it sucks, it won't feel like suppression of speech. Someone like Bobby Kotick might have strong opinions about the labor movement and have an interest in suppressing content surrounding it. Something TikTok currently lets flow freely on the platform. It doesn't even need to be Kotick either, my point is that anyone from the imperial core owning the platform is going to warp it in this way.
TikTok left alone will eat itself in time, as all these things under capitalism do. And It's not without its own scandals regarding content suppression, mind you. However, I think that for a long time, there was very little enforcement of suppressing, deprioritizing, or flagging violent content on the platform. Typically, curtailing violent content also leads to the suppression of state violence against activist movements because, violence is violence. This lack of enforcement from TikTok led to amplifying many of the more violent moments of the BLM protests. When you open TikTok and are met with a man-on-the-street interview of a protester who has a bandage over his eye from being shot in the head with a "nonlethal" munition, it's difficult to look away.