The best propaganda are self propaganda, the power of TikTok's recommendation algorithm isn't that it pushes preachy videos like MSM, but rather its ability to selectively push authentic videos by people you identify with that also align with messaging. If it looks like China is hands off that's the point, but China isn't really hands off otherwise it wouldn't have put up export control on the algorithm.Its funny that people keep saying that TikTok was a tool of Chinese soft power, when China was always hands off on the app and never used it to promote Chinese propaganda. The only soft power was perhaps signalling China's ascendancy into tech superpower status, but China has so many other succesful ventures nowadays a single app isn't going to tip the scale.
On the other hand, if the sale really does go through Trump has supposedly vowed to, surprise surprise, tweak the algorithim to make TikTok a MAGA propaganda echo chamber.
Sidenote I made a prediction on this a few weeks ago, but really anyone following the news even casually would know he was going to do it anyway. And imo, if Trump wants to keep radicalizing his base and dividing America, I'm all for China helping him in that goal
The meme about China winning by doing nothing is funny, but it also ignores how much China did in helping Americans destroy themselves, including popularizing the dumbest MAGA content until the entire White House cabinet and head of US departments are all filled with unqualified influencers