The anti-India hate is artificial
I can't believe not enough people realize it, but geopolitically China and India are not on good terms and while Sinophobia is growing in India, anti-Indian sentiment is at an all-time high in China. Tiktok, as a Chinese app, has always artificially boosted videos that promote a China-approved perspective on several issues. There's no other way to explain how Americans of all people would end up with a non-antiintellectual political take all of a sudden now Tiktok is here. It's not outright propaganda since the people making the videos weren't contacted or paid by Chinese authorities to make these videos and for the most part I agree with the takes, but it doesn't make them any less astroturfed nor is it a coincidence for it to end up on your FYP either. Since last year or so, Tiktok has used its algorithm to show a lot of disgusting street food videos from India and the comments have been straight up racist. These videos have now normalized a whole new form of blatant racism where people are comfortably saying a lot of disgusting things to Indian content creators.
Disgusting street food is not unique to India. In the Philippines, the poorest people in the country are known to cook and sell literal leftover trash known as pagpag. However, China does seem to promote friendly relations with the Philippines despite the tense situation between the two nations over territorial disputes over a few islands (China however promotes the view that the Philippines is not the villain here, but that it is being used as an instrument of US ambitions), so most Tiktok videos about pagpag is overwhelmingly positive and sympathetic (with most liked comments being along the lines of "poverty is terrible" rather than "cleanest Filipino food" etc). Plenty of other countries in Southern Africa has street food vendors selling food in equally unsanitary ways as we see with the Indian street food videos, but the algorithm doesn't promote them. I'm convinced every anti-India comment and video is astroturfed to make the rest of the world support China/Pakistan against India in future conflicts. If anyone remembers using the internet back in the 2000s, the US did the same thing with the extreme hatred toward Muslims (not just by racists and conservatives, but bipartisan) so people would support US wars in the middle east. Be aware of it and don't let it fool you.
It's not just street food. It's any tiktok where "India" is mentioned. When comparing to Instagram (a US app that doesn't share the same agenda against India), you'll notice those comments much less and it's overall a more nuanced take. I'm not Indian or Chinese, but thought this was worth pointing out.
