Creatix / June 29, 2025
TikTok's Socialist Movement in New York City
In one of the most unexpected political turns in recent New York history, Zohran Mamdani, the democratic socialist Assemblymember from Queens, has defeated former Governor Andrew Cuomo in the Democratic primary for New York City mayor. While the general election remains to be decided in November of this year, Mamdani is now the clear frontrunner. His socialist victory signals not just a generational shift, but the rise of a new kind of political power: one fueled by TikTok, a Chinese-owned social media platform that has become Gen Z’s ideological training ground.
From Astoria to Citywide Dominance
Mamdani first rose to prominence as a bold and principled advocate for tenants’ rights, public transportation reform, and wealth redistribution in the State Assembly. But his stunning mayoral primary win wasn’t just about policy—it was about algorithmic delivery powered by Chinese media company. Mamdani didn’t rely on corporate donors or traditional media. Instead, he turned to TikTok, where his message of working-class empowerment was served vigorously and fed virally directly to millions of young voters trapped by addictive short-form videos, stitched memes, and satirical breakdowns of Cuomo’s record.
Cuomo’s TV and Media Couldn’t Compete
Cuomo entered the race as an established candidate, armed with legacy media coverage and insider influence. While Cuomo's campaign invested in expensive prime-time TV and radio ads, Mamdani was uploading TikToks for free and letting the Chinese company spread them virally. One video—where he used New York pizza slices to explain income inequality—garnered over 8.5 million views and became a catalyst for a spike in voter registrations among first-time voters.
Mandami beat Cuomo. America's political pundits were left stunned, not just by the results, but by the realization that their candidate had been outwatched by a socialist using a Chinese algorithm. Cuomo ran a good campaign. Mamdani and China's TikTok ran a movement. TikTok's algorithm programmed young voters to vote for the socialist candidate.
TikTok as Campaign Infrastructure
What Mamdani and TikTok built wasn’t just viral content—it was a digital machine. His team created a decentralized army of creators, activists, and volunteers who used TikTok not only to spread memes but to teach, organize, and mobilize. The hashtag #ZohranZone became a real-time digital town hall where everyday New Yorkers shared their personal experiences with unaffordable rent, racial profiling, and crushing student debt. TikTok spread the videos like a virus.
The real "campaign manager" of Mandami was AI, specifically TikTok's addictive algorithm. This is a system that has learned to push content that generates emotional responses and repeat engagement. In Mamdani’s case, the algorithm created a feedback loop, where young users were constantly fed reinforcing messages about injustice and the need for systemic change. Creators, influenced by what got views and shares, doubled down on radical messaging. This loop became a powerful conveyor belt for socialist ideas wrapped in humor, relatability, and righteous indignation.
So Why Is TikTok Still Legal?
Under the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act (PAFACA), TikTok was supposed to be banned in the U.S. starting January 2025 due to its Chinese ownership and potential national security risks. But enforcement has been repeatedly delayed—first by 75 days in January, then another 75 days in April, and again in June with a 90-day delay, pushing the new deadline to September 17, 2025.
While TikTok remains operational, talks are underway for a possible U.S. acquisition. A group of anonymous “very wealthy people” are negotiating to buy TikTok’s U.S. operations, but any sale would require Chinese government approval, especially over its proprietary algorithm—which is, arguably, the real asset. For now, TikTok continues operating—and influencing millions of American minds.
TikTok’s Role in Artificially Spreading Socialism
TikTok isn’t spreading socialism by design—but it is doing it by incentive. Its algorithm is engineered to promote content that triggers engagement, and few things engage young Americans today like content about unfair rents, unpayable student debt, billionaire hoarding, and rigged economic systems.
Here’s how the cycle works: A user watches a TikTok criticizing landlords. The algorithm sees that engagement and feeds them more anti-landlord content. That user is soon watching videos about unionizing, wealth redistribution, and critiques of capitalism itself. As creators see which content performs well, they produce more of it. Over time, the platform trains both the audience and the content creators, reinforcing the same themes again and again—creating what can only be described as an ideological echo chamber.
For many young users, especially those burdened with economic anxiety, TikTok isn’t just entertainment. It's social control via emotional validation, community, and indoctrination.
Mamdani’s Socialism Isn’t China’s Communism
It’s important to clarify that while Mamdani's platform overlaps in some policy outcomes—like public housing or mass transit—with Chinese urban policy, the resemblance ends there. Mamdani is a democratic socialist rooted in the DSA’s principles: democratic participation, grassroots empowerment, and rights-based reforms. His priorities include rent control, fare-free transit, wealth taxes, union protections, and anti-imperialist foreign policy.
In contrast, China’s governance is authoritarian and centralized. Public housing and transit expansion are directed from the top down by the Communist Party, with limited citizen input and extensive surveillance. Labor rights are tightly restricted, independent unions are banned, and dissent is censored. What Mamdani offers is a bottom-up, democratic vision; what China implements is technocratic state capitalism with rigid control.
Could Mamdani’s Socialist Wave Spread?
The conditions are ripe for a broader socialist movement, especially in cities that are struggling with housing costs, stagnant wages, and climate anxieties. Urban areas like Chicago, Los Angeles, Seattle, and Philadelphia already have strong progressive ecosystems and grassroots momentum. Younger voters—Millennials and Gen Z—are far more open to democratic socialism than any previous generation.
But significant barriers remain. Party leadership at local and national levels often resists left-wing insurgents. Corporate donors prop up moderate incumbents. The word “socialism” still triggers cultural resistance in many parts of the country, especially in suburban and rural regions. Media framing tends to cast socialist ideas as dangerous or naive. And while democratic socialists can win low-turnout primaries, general elections—especially in swing districts—remain steep uphill battles.
Still, Mamdani’s win proves the playbook works. And if TikTok remains in operation, that playbook might soon be used in other cities.
What Could Accelerate the Spread of Viral Socialism in America?
Several catalysts could push this movement from niche to mainstream: a major economic downturn, a national rent crisis, continued political stagnation, or the rise of more charismatic leaders like Mamdani and AOC. If TikTok stays unbanned, its algorithm will continue to act as a force multiplier for this ideology. And as long as young people feel locked out of prosperity in an aging country, they’ll keep looking for someone who speaks their language—and shows up in their feed.
Conclusion: Delete TikTok?
What happened in New York wasn’t just a campaign victory. It was a demonstration of power—not just of grassroots organizing, but of a foreign-owned algorithm reshaping American political consciousness one scroll at a time.
Whether you view Mamdani as a hopeful reformer or a dangerous radical, the deeper question is this: How much of our democratic future is being shaped by a non-democratic platform, controlled abroad, and designed to hijack attention?
If that alarms you, there’s one thing you can do.
Delete TikTok.
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