If you’re like me, and I assume most people in the United States, you’ve heard about the social media app, TikTok, an absurd amount lately. According to the U.S. government, the app drives concerns for national security, free speech, and executive authority as the app is owned by a Chinese parent company called ByteDance.
On the opposite side of the TikTok coin are the creators and users who argue this ban would infringe on First Amendment rights, and many, including one of my favorite TikTok creators (@UnderTheDeskNews) point out that there are also due process violations under the Fifth Amendment lacking clear evidence or procedural fairness.
Now that we’re all on the same page, let’s figure out what that means for users, creators and advertisers who rely on TikTok for news, entertainment and in many, many cases, income. My first and most pressing question was how would a ban on an app even work in America. As it turns out, there is not a single avenue to outright wipe the app from our devices (as BookTok would say, without a lot of people getting real cool about a lot of things real fast). So, what could that look like?
I’ve seen speculation on obvious things like, it would no longer be available to download or update in the app stores for our devices eventually making it outdated and unusable. They (whoever they is here) could use ISP and DNS blocks and filters. And of course, the one we all side-eye, government intervention making it illegal to access and use the app resulting in fines or penalties for those who don’t comply.
So, you may be asking yourself, “What’s the big deal? Instagram provides the same thing with Reels, just go there and build your content empire.” And to that, I say, “Ew, David.” I’ll be honest with you guys, I don’t know much about building an algorithm, but I do use a lot of the individual algorithms out there for work and personal use so I definitely like some better than others. The most unscientific way to describe it is that the TikTok algorithm just gets my vibe more than Instagram Reels, and apparently I’m not the only one with that opinion.
One might think if TikTok goes away, Meta would be about to make bank with its similar functioning Reels feature. That does not seem to be the case. The youths have spoken and Meta is not it.
While it is very true that I am far from even being an arm-chair expert in the political space, it just feels to me that there are *gestures wildly at everything* many other places and spaces that could use the time and effort of our politicians and justices than banning an app that so far has done a lot of good for a lot of people. And selfishly, I would like TikTok to stay around so I can continue to learn how to keep my plants alive, bake all the things, and get unfiltered access to all the random stories creators and experiencing and sharing with us.
The speculation is still on for the TikTok ban to go into effect. We’ll all find out together if it’s going to happen, if it will stay banned, and how the ban will logistically work. Let us know where you guys are headed while we wait it out!