A ban on TikTok is overdue as the US confronts China's asymmetrical “net nationalism” and fights for the future of the open internet
the open internet — should be extended only to companies from countries that respect that openness themselves.” Best summary yet on TikTok: https://www.nytimes.com/... @nytopinion : “Behind the TikTok controversy is an important struggle between two dueling visions of the internet” writes @superwuster https://www.nytimes.com/... Wesley Yang / @wesyang : This has always seemed self evident to me; bizarre that anyone would think otherwise https://www.nytimes.com/... Melissa Chen / @msmelchen : The asymmetry is unfair & ought no longer be tolerated. The privilege of full internet access - the open internet - should be extended only to companies from countries that respect that openness themselves. Let's not be suckers. Well done @superwuster https://www.nytimes.com/... Raymond Zhong / @zhonggg : Tim Wu: “Some think that it is a tragic mistake for the United States to violate the principles of internet openness that were pioneered in this country. But there is also such a thing as being a sucker.” https://www.nytimes.com/... @yaqiu : I think the key here is how we counter, punish China's techno-nationalism without triggering a race to the bottom, how we promote and maintain a free rest-of-the-internet while isolating the Chinese govt. It takes careful and coordinated policy planning. https://www.nytimes.com/... @freddylim : For years, the #CCP's been exploiting the rules of free market, using internet as a mean of state control and propaganda. Taiwan's no stranger to this. Not defending Trump's rather aggressive approach, but it's time the world do something about it. https://www.nytimes.com/... Kenneth Roth / @kenroth : “In China, the foreign equivalents of TikTok and WeChat—video & messaging apps such as YouTube and WhatsApp—have been banned for years..China keeps a closed & censorial internet economy at home while its products enjoy full access to open markets abroad.” https://www.nytimes.com/... https://twitter.com/... Josh Kraushaar / @hotlinejosh : “The threatened bans on TikTok and WeChat, whatever their motivations, can also be seen as an overdue response, a tit for tat, in a long battle for the soul of the internet.” https://www.nytimes.com/... Danny O'Brien / @mala : To sacrifice individual freedom of speech and association — wherever those people live — to pursue foreign policy goals is to misunderstand the whole basis of human rights *and* the promise of the Internet in expanding those rights: https://www.nytimes.com/... Lance Ulanoff / @lanceulanoff : An important read from a respected Internet observer. I don't know if the point here is so much that TikTok needs to be banned as that it's time to demand China play by the same digital rules as the rest of the world. TikTok may be collateral damage. https://www.nytimes.com/... Alex Kantrowitz / @kantrowitz : “Critics say we shouldn't abandon the ideal of an open internet. But there is such a thing as being a sucker.” https://www.nytimes.com/... Eunice Yoon / @onlyyoontv : Oracle enters race to buy @tiktok_us' operations US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, sources tell @FT. @Oracle working with a group of US investors that already own a stake in ByteDance, including General Atlantic and Sequoia Capital, the people added. https://www.ft.com/... Alan Tsen / @alantsen : Lol, can't wait for the Oracle's sales team to get a hold of TiKTok. “Download our white paper to find out how Oracle TikTok Enterprise can drive 13.75% more revenue for your business!” https://twitter.com/...
Context & Ripple Effects
Jack Goldsmith's op-ed lands mid-escalation: weeks after a [[a:956151|New York Times piece framed the TikTok fight as a chance to build a thoughtful regulatory model]] for big tech regardless of origin, this argument takes the harder line — that the open internet should be a privilege extended only to companies from countries that reciprocate it, and that China's 'net nationalism' has broken the symmetry. The op-ed's core claim is reciprocity: Chinese platforms enjoy full access to Western markets and users while the reverse is impossible.
The months that followed tested whether a ban or a restructuring would win: ByteDance reportedly moved toward placing TikTok's global business in a standalone US-based company with Oracle and Walmart as minority shareholders, and an app-store ban with a Nov. 12 deadline raised the odd scenario where TikTok operates but cannot patch security vulnerabilities. Later reporting showed the trust problem persisting inside the fix itself — Oracle staff reviewing source code under TikTok-controlled cameras, a requirement attributed to Beijing.
First-order effects
- ByteDance faces a forced choice between divesting TikTok's US operations into a US-controlled structure and losing the American market entirely, with Oracle positioned as the trusted-technology partner either way.
- US users and the app-store ecosystem confront the first removal of a top-tier Chinese-owned consumer platform on national-security grounds, converting an abstract reciprocity debate into a concrete access decision.
Second-order effects
- Oracle gains a new role as the US government's designated trust broker for Chinese-owned apps, a franchise that later reporting on its source-code review arrangement shows comes with operational constraints dictated from Beijing.
- TikTok's trust-building playbook — transparency centers and DC outreach — follows Huawei's failed US and Europe strategy, pushing other Chinese consumer platforms to expect the same reciprocity test rather than market-by-market treatment.
Third-order effects
- If the reciprocity logic holds, internet openness becomes conditional: access to the US market turns on whether a company's home government grants equivalent access, formalizing the split the op-ed says China's net nationalism already created.
- The pattern points from ad-hoc executive action toward standing legislation — the House vote that later drew Beijing's 'robber's logic' accusation shows the ban debate hardening into statute rather than remaining a one-off negotiation over ownership structures.
The trend: Internet governance is shifting from universal openness to reciprocity-based access, with national-security review — not market competition — deciding which foreign platforms reach Western users.