Is China Running Viral Anti-Marriage Campaigns On TikTok?

A few viral videos regarding marriage have gone viral on TikTok, featuring young women being proposed to. Instead of accepting the ring happily, they show glimpses of what their life would turn into if they became a wife. But they're not showing scenes of happiness, joy, love, and fulfillment. Instead, they're showing themselves slaving away at home, cleaning, scrubbing, and taking care of babies while they're exhausted. Not exactly the most exciting sell on marriage and motherhood. It's starting to make people wonder whether there is an intentional anti-marriage message being pushed on the popular social media platform.

Is China Running Viral Anti-Marriage Campaigns on TikTok?

In August, a video went viral of a young blonde woman (who was later identified as a Ukrainian influencer) being presented with a ring. She smiles to put her finger into the ring, only to see quick flashes of what life would be like if she said yes. The clips include her scrubbing the bathroom, cleaning dishes at the sink, cooking, folding laundry, mopping while heavily pregnant, and carrying a baby. In each clip, she seems unhappy, as if she is being forced into some kind of slave labor. In the end she takes the ring off and walks away.

In a similar TikTok, a man in a suit lays down a high-heel shoe for his bride to put her foot in. She's dressed in a beautiful wedding dress, and she smiles as she puts her foot in the sandal. As soon as her foot hits the shoe, we see flashes of her sweeping, cooking, being heavily pregnant, and rocking a baby. She gets so disturbed by what she sees that she hands her groom the flowers in her hands and walks away.

These videos exaggerate the duties that come with wifehood and motherhood. Of course, you have to clean your home, do the dishes, cook, etc. Because those are the normal things that people do when they live in a home. You would be doing those things regardless of whether you got married. And the images of motherhood make it seem horrible and completely void of joy. It's clearly an anti-marriage message that is pedaled by young, attractive women, seemingly encouraging other women to stay single and avoid marriage entirely. Is this a coordinated effort by China, where TikTok originated? After all, we already know that Chinese youth are presented with completely different content on TikTok than the youth here in the U.S.

TikTok in the U.S. Looks Different from TikTok in China

American youth are lagging behind educationally, with recent international assessment results highlighting the United States’ subpar performance compared to other nations, particularly China. U.S. students ranked eighth in reading, eleventh in science, and thirtieth in math in the Program for International Student Assessment, which evaluates the aptitudes of 15-year-olds from 79 countries. These disappointing results are attributed, in part, to the pervasive influence of social media platforms like TikTok and YouTube, which are accused of disseminating harmful and divisive content to American youth, affecting their mental health and academic performance.

China is cited as not only surpassing the U.S. in educational performance but also as a possible source of intentionally harmful content. The difference in the content fed to children in the U.S. and China via TikTok is emphasized, suggesting a contrast in values and intent, with Chinese versions of the platform purportedly focusing on educational and patriotic content. The concern is amplified by accusations of China employing these platforms for psychological warfare aimed at degrading Western civilization and manipulating the cognitive frameworks of American youth to win future conflicts by inducing confusion and undermining the will of opponents.

A significant concern raised revolves around the impact of social media on mental health, with reports indicating a high rate of distress among American teenagers. The nature of the content encountered by teenagers on platforms like TikTok and YouTube is brought to the forefront, with narratives of violence, depression, and hopelessness dominating the user experience. This has been illustrated through a firsthand account by Post reporter Asia Grace, who, posing as a teenager, was exposed to content glamorizing underage drinking, violence against women, and distressing memes about mental illnesses, thereby corroborating concerns about the deleterious effects of such exposure on the mental well-being of American youth.

The argument is further substantiated by claims of China’s strategic utilization of TikTok to assert influence over American youth. FBI Director Chris Wray expressed apprehensions over China’s capability to manipulate TikTok's recommendation algorithm for potential influence operations, fostering national security concerns. The allegations intensify with the proposition that China might be leveraging TikTok as a medium for psychological operations against the American populace, manipulating cognitive frameworks to attain non-combative victories by undermining opponents’ will and sowing confusion.

Chinese youth are only allowed to use TikTok for 40 minutes a day.

The criticism is not confined to Chinese-owned platforms but extends to American-owned entities like Google’s YouTube, accentuating the need for self-reflection and responsibility on the part of American social media companies. The urgency for introspection is heightened by observations that platforms like TikTok and YouTube might be exacerbating the issues by pushing content that promotes mental illness, addiction, and violence, thereby contributing to the declining mental health and academic performance of American youth. The contention is that the values and missions of such platforms are in stark contrast to the best interests of the United States, and their operations should be viewed with concern and skepticism.

The nuanced difference between the content provided by the Chinese versions of the platforms and their international counterparts suggests a deliberate strategy to protect their youth while allegedly exploiting the vulnerabilities of youth in other nations. This contrast is particularly emphasized by Tristan Harris from the Center for Humane Technology, who contrasted the “spinach version” of TikTok served to Chinese children with the “opium version” shipped to the rest of the world.

Harris said Chinese youth are only allowed to use the app for 40 minutes a day, while most American youth use it for multiple hours. While teenage girls in the U.S. are being sold anti-marriage TikToks, Chinese youth are being shown art exhibits, educational videos, and at-home science experiments. It's hard to claim that this is all by accident. If we continue down this road, we'll continue to see the marriage rates declining, as well as the birth replacement rate.

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