> it's banned in China itself My understanding is that TikTok is the international version of Douyin.

There maybe be some technical reasons for this.

But feeding into the psyops narrative, it's good practice to separate your intelligence gathering into domestic and international. Ex. CIA and FBI

In some sense, it's no accessible just like Google and Facebook in China. Or you can say Tiktok does not operate inside China because there's another China specific version Douyin (from the same company).

Indeed. From what I've read, Chinese Tik Tok looks nothing at all like what gets served up in the West.

I'd imagine that for China, US/Western Tik Tok is a literal treasure trove of useful information on the state of practically every facet of US/Western life and culture. Oh the subtle and untraceable mischief you could get up to by just turning a few knobs.

This is what a variety of outlets like Reddit and Wikipedia have descended into though. The people on the establishment side will say its "open" but the people being discriminated against will say it's biased.