I can’t identify what makes TikTok special in that regard

Demographics. Tiktok has more Gen Z people than the other platforms and Gen Z are just a much better generation than the others at activism. As a left wing anti-authoritarian pacifist elder millenial, I'm frankly in awe about how much ass they're kicking compared to my generation, Gen X and Boomers.

Gen Z goes where other Gen Z are and if we scatter them by letting some xenophobic politicians close down their main platform for activism, we lose a shitload that's much more important than appearing "tough on China" in an election year.

relying on a hyper-capitalist platform that is controlled in no small part by an a authoritarian, imperialist, and hostile foreign government through so-called “golden shares”, was always a bad idea.

That's just the thing, though: Tiktok activists have invented am enormous glossary of code words and other tricks to get around the censorship and other suppression of the platform.

Anti-authoritarian Tiktok activists are beating the hypercapitalist corporation and the oppressive government and American politicians want to shut them up just as much as they want to score cheap political points by pretending that China is any more of a danger to democracy and free speech than Facebook and Google.

They’re banning ByteDance from owning it. TikTok will live on

Yeah, they can't do that. They can't just tell an officially private company that hasn't broken any existing laws "you don't own it anymore. Sell it to someone we approve of* or we shut it down"

If any country tried to do that to an American company, they'd be treated like Cuba 2.0.

*read: someone who pays us more in legal bribes