The U.S. is struggling to maintain its soft power advantage over China, and the recent TikTok ban highlights this shift in influence. Soft power is the ability to influence others through attraction in forms of culture, values, and policies. It has always been one of the U.S.’ greatest strengths and a crucial part of the U.S.’ strategy to maintain its global leadership position. The U.S. has greatly shaped global culture through factors such as Hollywood, top universities, social media giants like Instagram and Facebook, the “American Dream”, and a vast network of alliances.
However, recently the U.S.’s ability to be influential is declining and the TikTok ban on Jan. 19 solidifies this decline. The U.S. government saw TikTok, a China-based app, as a threat because they believed that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) could steal Americans’ data and negatively influence Americans through the app. As a result, they banned the app. In the days before TikTok was banned though, nearly 3 million new American users joined a Chinese app similar to TikTok called Xiaohongshu (RedNote). Although these reactions may appear silly or trivial, they reflect a deeper and more concerning trend: a major shift towards China’s soft power.
China has been trying to increase its soft power in recent years through factors such as building high-speed railways, advancing in technologies such as A.I., and having entertainment industries target international audiences. And with the dramatic attraction of Xiaohongshu among Americans, China is successfully expanding its influence.
The TikTok ban may be a well-intended effort to address the nation’s security concerns; however, this controversy also highlights the U.S. government’s misunderstanding of how the younger generation views data privacy and national security. Many young American users, who are used to data collection by American companies, don’t feel that China taking it too makes much of a difference. By only targeting TikTok and not addressing data privacy issues with American tech companies as well, the U.S. risks losing influential power with the younger generation. The U.S. may lose the opportunity to steer the direction of culture, politics, and even technology in the future. Without significant influence, the U.S. may no longer be able to maintain its leading role in determining what matters.
Instead of resorting to prohibition, the U.S. should return to the free-market values that have guided this nation’s innovation, competition, and individuality. Free-market capitalism is an economic system where the government has minimal or no interference, allowing supply and demand to drive the market. These values allow businesses and consumers to freely make decisions without excessive control. Prohibition stifles innovation and competition, the key factors of progression and advancement. By embracing a free-market approach, the U.S. would promote the development of new technologies and the next generation of social media apps. This ensures that advancements in technology will continue to thrive, all while respecting personal freedom and fostering a diverse market.
The U.S. government should invest in education that empowers the next generations to critically evaluate the content they engage with. Schools should integrate media literacy courses, focusing on how to critically distinguish fact from opinion and assess the credibility of information found on the media, which would help students recognize biases, manipulations, and misinformation found on platforms such as TikTok. Additionally, schools should integrate international relations courses. These courses educate students on the different ways countries cooperate or conflict and how countries make decisions to protect their interests. This would allow students to understand the broader context of the Tiktok ban–it reflects the tension between the U.S. and China, where issues like national security and technological dominance come into play. These courses may help mitigate the negative responses to the U.S. government’s decision.
The dramatic response to the TikTok ban underscores the U.S. government’s obliviousness to the younger generation’s view on data privacy and failure to address those issues with their perspectives and needs in mind. If the U.S. wants to compete with China in soft power, it must learn to adapt, integrate, and promote–adapt to our views, integrate our preferences to create policies, and instead of outright bans, promote and preserve the free-market. TikTok is a space where ideas are formed, identities are expressed, and even political or social movements gain influence. The TikTok ban isn’t just about losing influence: it’s about losing the power to shape the future.
