I live in New Zealand and I use TikTok. The hate toward Indians is real. High key real.
I recently watched a YouTube video about rising online hate against Indians. It matched what I already see daily on TikTok. The problem is simple. India banned TikTok. The rest of the world did not.
TikTok is massive outside India. Over 1.5 billion monthly active users globally. India used to be its biggest market with over 200 million users before the ban. That voice disappeared overnight. No cap.
Now look at what happened next. No Indian voice on the main global platform Outside India, TikTok dominates culture and opinions. Instagram and Facebook matter in India. They matter less in the US, Europe, and Oceania. When hate content shows up on TikTok, there are fewer Indians to counter it. Trolls know this. That is why they post there.
Misinformation spreads fast and sticks. During the recent India Pakistan conflict, TikTok was flooded with fake clips and edited videos. Many accounts appeared Pakistan based. Those videos pushed one story. India as the aggressor. Pakistan as the defender. Some users now believe India lost. That narrative stuck because there was little pushback. TikTok favors short viral content. Lies spread faster than context.
The civic sense argument is weak. Some Indians online love blaming their own people. They say Indians lack civic sense. That argument ignores reality. I have traveled. I have lived abroad. Public toilets in so called developed countries literally have signs telling people to flush. Streets in New Zealand have dumped sofas, broken TVs, and general waste. Paris, New York, and LA all have documented litter issues. You can watch real street footage. It is not hidden.
The difference is enforcement. In many Western countries, councils clean regularly. Fines exist. Systems work. In India, corruption and weak enforcement break the chain. This is governance failure, not DNA.
The immigrant blame game is tired. Another viral take. Indians go abroad and ruin countries. This take ignores data. Crime stats in countries like the US, UK, and Canada consistently show immigrants commit less crime than native born citizens. Bad behavior exists in every group. Johnny Somali is a clear example. An American arrested in Japan, Israel, and South Korea for repeated disrespectful acts. One guy does not define a nation. Same logic should apply everywhere.
Brown skin = Indian. This is a big one. Any brown person messes up. The label becomes Indian. Pakistan. Bangladesh. Sri Lanka. Even people from African countries. The internet does not care. Hate videos slap the Indian tag and go viral. That is lazy racism amplified by algorithms.
TikTok’s algorithm pushes outrage. Outrage drives watch time. Watch time drives reach. That is how these clips hit millions in hours.
So, was banning TikTok a good move? From a security angle, maybe. From a global image and narrative angle, it was an L.
The US did not fully ban TikTok. They pushed for regulation and data control. That kept their voice alive on the platform while managing risk.
India chose silence. Silence lets others speak for you.
No country is perfect. India has issues. Every nation does. But letting the loudest trolls control the global narrative is not the move.
India needs presence. India needs counters. India needs digital soft power where the world actually is.
Right now, that place is TikTok.