The Sino-US science and technology war continued when Trump stepped down, but the US technology and internet circles showed signs of becoming more and more like China. American social media such as Facebook and Twitter deleted the account of US President Trump immediately after an order. This approach has aroused heated discussion in Western society. At the same time, Facebook has also been accused of “stealing” the concept from China’s Internet, copying products to deal with opponents including from China, the old model of “theft of American innovation in China” is being reversed.
The US is about to publish a new book “TikTok Boom: China, the US and the Superpower Race for Social Media” (The Rise of TikTok: China, the United States and the Superpower Race for Social Media) author Chris Stokel-Walker in the Internet Media Business Insider wrote an article advocating that China used to copy American programs to develop its own network, but now it is Silicon Valley’s turn to copy its Chinese counterparts, and Facebook is particularly hypocritical while copying and exaggerating Chinese cyber threats.
Stockell Walker described the Internet after China’s “Great Firewall” as strangely familiar. There is no YouTube, but there are a series of services that look the same. There is no Twitter, but there are similar Weibo; this “parallel network.” It is the product of China’s unique social and political needs, but the ideas are all stolen from the American Silicon Valley social network giants in the early years.
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He further stated that it is not just network programs and services. Since Western companies began to produce in China in the 1980s and 1990s, China has been the kingdom of copycats. But “now in the 2020s, the trend has changed. At least in the technological world, we are copying China.”
According to the article, we are witnessing today that the first-generation programs outside of Silicon Valley have truly become mainstream, and TikTok is the arrow in it. This change makes Silicon Valley technology companies and American hawkish politicians worried, afraid that the United States is giving control of the Internet to China.
Facebook founder Zuckerberg (Mark Zuckerberg) is one of them. Exposure of internal documents shows that Zuckerberg once bluntly told employees that before TikTok appeared, major Internet companies were American companies, and TikTok was the first online consumer product of a Chinese science and technology company that can be used globally.
Zuckerberg used his usual method to deal with opponents: plagiarism if not acquired. Zuckerberg was also forced to admit at the US Congressional antitrust hearing last year that Facebook undoubtedly “adapted” the characteristics of others.
The emails of the two founders of Instagram also showed that they felt that even if they refused to sell their business to Facebook, the latter would copy the functions of Instagram anyway and enter the “destroy mode”.
Indeed, Facebook’s sub-business Instagram launched a new feature Reels last year, which has almost the same content as TikTok.
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Not only that, Zuckerberg tried his best to exaggerate Chinese cyber threats, lobbying American politicians to take action on TikTok. The American media disclosed last year that Zuckerberg met with many members of Congress and Trump over the past year to create a message that “Facebook is committed to freedom of expression, while TikTok threatens American value and technological hegemony.”
Stocker Walker stated that Trump’s decision to retaliate against TikTok (TikTok US users had collectively booked Trump’s absence after a campaign rally, leaving it empty), partly because of Zuckerberg’s promotion.
He criticized Facebook and Zuckerberg’s actions as hypocritical. “Zuke Burke talked about China’s censorship and supervision, which shouldn’t be reproduced elsewhere. He also called the rise of Chinese programs and services. He asked everyone if he wanted the Internet to be like this. But he didn’t realize that, thanks to him, we already have a Chinese style. Internet.”
Facebook recently amended the terms of service of another sub-business, WhatsApp, to require WhatsApp users to agree to share data with Facebook, again causing controversy. Stockelwalker believes that although Facebook is not the only US technology company that hopes to create a “superapp” that will allow users to stay in its ecosystem as a one-stop service, few companies are as open-minded. “Copycats and plagiarism, the typical characteristics of Chinese industries, have come to the West, which is terribly similar to Facebook.”
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