Nothing has challenged Silicon Valley like the Chinese app. Blocking its use in the US would be like stealing half the books in a libraryHow many times in your life can you say that one of the culture-defining platforms of your era is being forcibly removed? This is what will happen to the one third of American adults who use TikTok – and the other two-thirds whose lives have been undoubtedly affected by it – if the US supreme court upholds its ban on the Chinese-owned app, as it is expected to do on 19 January, in the interests of national security.I have spent the last few years researching instances of linguicide, where authoritarian regimes have burned dictionaries, or sent people to prison just for singing a song. I see alarming parallels with the dismantling of TikTok in the US; a ruthless cull of a communication tool that challenges Silicon Valley hegemony and gave the US a serving of what it is allegedly supposed to prize: healthy, full-fat competition.Sophia Smith Galer is a journalist, content creator and the author of Losing It Continue reading...