A Queer Dream of New and Unassimilable Things

As a doctoral scholar of African feminist digital cultures and technology studies, observing this from both my American and Nigerian locations, I am struck by how this digital migration of users currently referred to as ‘TikTok refugees’ mirrors broader patterns of queer displacement. This movement reveals complexities of power, assimilation and survival that extend far beyond simple narratives of censorship versus freedom, as the very framing of Chinese digital spaces as uniquely hostile to queer expression exposes a fundamental contradiction within the US’s liberal democratic and self-appointed role as global protector of LGBTQ+ rights. This contradiction becomes especially apparent with recent developments, as a narrative of Western digital exceptionalism conveniently obscures how similar restrictions operate within American platforms, especially with this news coming just days away from Meta’s platform governing decisions: shutting down its system for moderating fake new s, implementing dehumanizing moderation policies against trans people, abandoning its diversity, equity and inclusion programme, permitting homophobic and transphobic speech across its platforms, and getting a MAGA makeover less than four years after the platform banned Trump for inciting the January 6 riots. This exemplifies exactly how Western platforms can engage in speech suppression precisely because the existence of supposedly more restrictive spaces elsewhere maintains their image as relatively exceptional havens of freedom.