Once things are put into the hands of netizens, incredible outcomes may happen. They can even find dialogue that trained diplomats and officials fail to achieve. The #TikTokRefugees phenomenon became a volume of migrating people from the US to China’s digital sphere. Joining them were individuals from Europe and other regions, expressing solidarity with the American participants in their digital migration. For example, the RedNote was the second most popular app download on Apple products in Italy on January 14th and the number one in the United States. And then… people started sharing their English homework (Chinese netizens) or videos explaining reasons behind this digital migration (American netizens), or playing music for each other… The ‘clash of civilizations’ took its virtual form far from what Political Scientists envisioned, among others, through a lens of the Thucydides-trap. And yet, such a utopia might not last long as both governments were caught off guard and might be acting soon to impose regulation on digital migration.
Digital Kallipolis 