Researcher ORCID Identifier

0009-0008-9940-529X

Graduation Year

2025

Date of Submission

4-2025

Document Type

Campus Only Senior Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelor of Arts

Department

International Relations

Reader 1

Minxin Pei

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Terms of Use for work posted in Scholarship@Claremont.

Rights Information

@2025AngelLei

Abstract

This thesis examines the U.S. government’s attempt to ban TikTok—not as a clear act of national defense, but as an expression of cultural anxiety, political theater, and the fear of losing narrative control. Though framed as a data privacy issue, the ban was never just about what TikTok did—it was about what TikTok represented: a foreign platform that captured too much attention, too quickly, challenging America’s sense of technological and cultural dominance.

Viewed through the lenses of realism and liberalism, this thesis traces how fear, symbolism, and strategic posturing collided in one of the most revealing tech battles of our time. From TikTok’s rise and its attempt to localize data through “Project Texas,” to the 14-hour blackout in January 2025, the mass user migration to Xiaohongshu, and Trump’s abrupt reversal—the story unfolds not through law, but through emotion. In the end, a decision affecting over 170 million Americans hinged not on evidence, but on the mood of a single politician.

At its core, this isn’t a story about an app. It’s a story about America—about what happens when a liberal democracy confuses visibility with vulnerability, and when fear begins to write the rules. The TikTok ban exposes the widening gap between the ideals the U.S. claims to uphold—free speech, open markets, democratic restraint—and how it behaves when those ideals are tested.

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