All of this fawning article about China over tiktok? Calling it technologically groundbreaking?

There is nothing technically novel or impressive about tiktok as an app from the user's perspective (the data mining methods might be technically cutting edge, but that's not exactly a competitive commercial market since the heavy stuff is too illegal for anyone but China and intelligence agencies to dabble in) The only things that tiktok has over the other dime-a-dozen social media apps are: Its uniquely laid back enforcement of copyright, allowing people to mass publish dances to commercial properties that would immediately get squashed by Western owned properties who are in bed the big copyright holders. And the complete lack of needing to monetize or secure a commercial revenue source as the CCP will never allow them to go under, as long as they're farming data and editting the algorithms to promote the narratives the CCP want promoting.

Which I guess if you remove the absurd claim that America steals more technical innovation from China and replace it with America steals more innovation in amoral mass social manipulation and propaganda from China, they're pretty right. Western social media companies have lagged behind China there, but they've all abandoned those troublesome principles that were slowing them down and are running hard to catch up to that lead now.