That's not to say that isn't necessarily the case, but opinion polls are very different from self selected groups of people vocally producing social media content and I think the assertion that the numbers should match up requires a little bit more evidence (e.g is that usually the case in situations like this?)
(But I think the unspoken part is that it's not really Chinese propagandists cooking up viral stories (they're way too boring for that) but instead Americans propagandizing to other Americans, which they have First Amendment rights to do.)
Then should rest of the world ban Facebook and other US social media platforms? They're foreign, influential and have been used to drive political sentiment perhaps even more than TikTok.
The article is very US centric. It does make sense, it is about US election year; still, reading it from outside of US feels strange.
In any case banning TikTok or any other platform feels like a temporary fix. I guess a long term solution should address all social media platforms somehow - but I don't know what that solution would be.
Side note : I'm quite interested, is TikTok as popular with Gen Z in Europe as it is in America?
Is it that Tiktok promotes bigotry and division? Are Facebook and Twitter exempt because antisemitism there is more in line with Pew poll percentages?
