Why governments are threatened by teens on TikTok
Liberalism and social media
To understand the perils of over-regulation, we can consult the most important theorist of liberty, John Stuart Mill. In my recentbook, I present Mill as a liberal, a feminist, and a critic of state interventionism. Mill argues for almost complete freedom of expression and freedom of the press in countriescapable offree discussion and exchange of ideas. He places individuality at the center of his vision of what a person with “character” is, and he argues that there is value in nonconformism.
Social media platforms often play a role in reinforcing trends and in creating a sort of sameness, but they remain vehicles for self-expression, especially of young people. Mill would not support their regulation by the government.
Social media and authoritarianism
If we want to understand why non-liberal governments see threats in self-expression, we can return to communist Czechoslovakia and dissidents such as Václav Havel. In his 1978 essay,The Power of the Powerless, Havel identifies a “hidden sphere” of youth culture. “Pre-political” engagement takes place there and sometimes leads to the creation of a “parallel polis,” or space where a group of citizens can feel politically active.
During the Arab Spring, graffiti and popular songs were part of the “parallel polis”. Similarly, Czechoslovakian dissidents found places for expression in popular culture. Thus,Charter 77, the political movement which Havel co-founded, was connected to popular music and concerts. Politically, even music matters.
Thus, in a manner reminiscent of the American youth culture of the 1960s, the “parallel polis” offers an alternative to a tightly controlled, state-centered public life. Both an unfettered utopia and an escape, this space is the dream of users of immersive platforms such asSecond Life. And in the case ofMinecraft, an in-game “uncensored library” exists as an archive of censored real-world data. Thus, a game can have important real-world consequences.
So can Twitter. Media analysts see Twitter’s 500-million daily tweets as an important vehicle of activism. The book#Hashtag Activism: Networks of Race and Gender Justiceexplains how counter publics use Twitter to “advocate for social change, identity redefinition, and political inclusion”.
Now, in the aftermath of theGeorge Floyd shooting, we are also seeing more overtly political uses of TikTok. Teens are using the platform to record protest marches and to make statements about social justice.
Today, TikTok and Instagram, or even mahraganat music (described as an Egyptian fusion of electronic and folk music) are seen by some governments not as entertainment, but instead as challenges to state social control. Mahraganat, for example, was recentlybannedin Egypt. Calls to ban TikTok have been raised worldwide and bans have been tried out in India and Indonesia.
Platforms such as TikTok are oriented towards younger users. The age of users raises valid questions about the privacy and protection of minors. But outright bans may over-regulate the legitimate expression of young people. And applyingcybercrimes lawsto regulate user-created content may do the same thing. A new Egyptian social media campaign (#If Egyptian Families Permit) to free the arrested young female TikTok users makes just this point.
Women in the Middle East and North Africa region have been complaining about legal and social restrictions on their behavior and bodies since well before the Arab Spring. Until this tension is mediated in civil society, governments will continue to see a hidden sphere of resistance in even apolitical, user-created dance videos on TikTok. And young people will continue to find new ways to connect on social media, in spaces that are increasingly hard for governments to regulate.
This article is republished fromThe ConversationbyChris Barker, Assistant Professor of Political Science,American University in Cairounder a Creative Commons license. Read theoriginal article.
Story byThe Conversation
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