Obviously the issue that they're promoting is in their interests, but its the same for everyone else. Nobody would promote an issue that didn't benefit them! When Google and Facebook blacked out their sites to stop SOPA, that was because it was in their interests too, SOPA would have kneecapped the Web just as it was beginning to take off.
What frustrates me about this discussion is the way that people take anything TikTok does here and assumes that it's out of evil and malicious intent, with very little proof other than its murky links to China, which feels very Cold War 2.0.
TikTok's links to China aren't "murky". ByteDance is literally a Chinese company. Chinese companies are regularly coerced by the state in the PRC, in obvious ways (Jack Ma says Hi) and subtle ones (the coordinated dance to bail out Evergrande).
I'm sensitive to your demand for proof, but how much more "proof" do you want? If the PRC wants to manipulate western democracy by mobilizing a force of Gen-Z nuts via messages in their favorite app, they can do it, just like they do domestically.
What frustrates me about this discussion is the way that people take anything TikTok does here and assumes that it's out of evil and malicious intent, with very little proof other than its murky links to China, which feels very Cold War 2.0.