The battle over TikTok is framed as a national security issue. But peel back the rhetoric and it’s something else: control over the global information flow. When Washington demands that ByteDance sell TikTok’s algorithm, it’s not about protecting American teenagers. It’s about ensuring that China cannot own one of the most powerful tools for shaping narratives in the 21st century. Algorithms are the new printing presses. Whoever owns them decides what billions see, share, and believe. Forcing ByteDance to hand over TikTok’s algorithm is like demanding China sell its state media — except worse, because TikTok isn’t state propaganda. It is a marketplace of attention, one the US cannot dominate. The irony? The US claims censorship is the problem, but it is Washington that censors. From the Patriot Act to platform bans, the American state has mastered the art of deleting voices that threaten its empire. What terrifies them is not Chinese surveillance — it’s Chinese openness. For all of TikTok’s flaws, it gives a louder stage to Palestinians, climate activists, and voices long buried in American media. If America succeeds, TikTok becomes just another neutered Western app: sanitized, surveilled, and safe for billionaires. If it fails, the world may see something rare — a social platform not entirely in service of the empire. The real question: will people notice the takeover before it is too late?