This is a prime example of Macron spreading conspiracy theories about what China is doing, which can only lead to terribly bad decisions.

It is true that Douyin in China has a mandatory "youth mode" for under 14-year-olds (much like YouTube has YouTube Kids), with daily usage limited to 40 minutes by default, no access between 10pm and 6am and restriction on content that isn't age-appropriate.

TikTok outside China is actually remarkably similar. The normal app is forbidden to under 13-year-olds who are forced since 2019 to use a separate app called "TikTok for Younger Users" (newsroom.tiktok.com/tik…) which includes the same types of restrictions: no commenting, no messaging, no posting content, only access to curated age-appropriate content. TikTok also automatically sets a 60-minute daily screen time limit (newsroom.tiktok.com/new…, comparable to Douyin's 40 minutes for under-14s).

So Macron's framing of China waging a "cognitive war" to "stupefy" Western youth is quite literally a conspiracy theory based on lies, the truth is that Bytedance built extremely similar protections into both platforms.

The one significant difference though is that Douyin's restrictions in China are based on Chinese laws on social networks which are strictly enforced by the Chinese government, with significant consequences for the companies if they don't respect them.

Incidentally the very same types of "censorship" laws the West has spent years castigating China about, which led to companies like Twitter or Facebook to be blocked in China because they refused to abide by them.

TikTok's restrictions, on the other hand, are however largely voluntary and self-imposed by ByteDance, not legally mandated. The West could pass laws requiring the same strict enforcement China has, but chooses not to - so Macron is essentially here blaming China for the consequences of his own regulatory choices, which is a bit rich...

Lastly, and this is the greatest irony of all, what this all means is that you now effectively have Macron complaining about the effects of the "internet freedom" his ilk always championed, implying that Chinese "censorship" was the smart play all along.

I agree it was the smart play, in fact I've always said the "great firewall" was one of the smartest decisions China ever took (x.com/RnaudBertrand/sta…). But, and this is absolutely key, if Europe wants to adopt something similar, they need to do based on a genuine understanding of what it is instead of basing their actions on the type of conspiracy theories that Macron is peddling here.

Contrary to popular belief the Great Firewall doesn't mindlessly block foreign content or companies. Rather, it's primarily an enforcement mechanism to ensure that all platforms operating in China - foreign or domestic - comply with Chinese law. Google, Facebook, and Twitter are blocked not because they're American, but because they explicitly refused to comply with Chinese laws. Meanwhile, American companies like Apple or Microsoft have been thriving in China precisely because they chose to comply.

As such, the Great Firewall is fundamentally a sovereignty tool: China's way of saying "if you want to operate here, you follow our rules, not Silicon Valley's." It's about retaining control over their own information space, not xenophobic discrimination.

That's why Macron's framing is so rabidly idiotic: it completely poisons the well. China isn't the "bad guy" here: they're simply a country that chose regulatory sovereignty over letting American tech companies write the rules.

By framing Chinese policy as "cognitive warfare" rather than a regulatory model worth studying, Macron ensures that France can't learn from what actually works. He's essentially sabotaged the very solutions he claims to want, all to score cheap political points by scapegoating China. That's Macron for you...