My point was that there is some institution on your site of that standoff. This will not be the case if you have to fight against your own government. So it's better to have to fight a foreign government, rather than one's own.

TikTok is a dangerous influence, yes. I wasn't trying to argue against that. But then, so are Facebook, YouTube, Reddit, Twitter and similar social media. Maybe even all social media.

Other than fighting with shortsighted regulations I don't know how one would fight such an influence other than widespread education of the people. But that would make them more resilient against any propaganda.