On the night of January 18, just one day shy of the national TikTok ban, TikTok went dark for about 15 hours. By the next day, the app was working normally for most users.
The ban had been building for weeks, with new reports of what would happen to the app coming out at what seemed like hourly intervals. The messages flipped back and forth between ‘there’s not going to be a ban,’ ‘the ban will happen later,’ and ‘the ban will be permanent on the 19th.’
TikTok has greatly influenced the culture and references of Gen Z, but that isn’t all. For better or worse, TikTok is also a news source for many people. Notably, it fostered conversations and exposed users to the genocide in Palestine when traditional media failed to cover it.
TikTok is valuable because it allows users to congregate and discuss topics that stray from the mainstream. It’s no wonder why the app was such a hit with young people. The short-form videos that the app provides seem like just the perfect form of escape for a generation that needs to constantly work to keep up with the economy. For many people TikTok is an escape from reality that isn’t behind a paywall and doesn’t require a huge time sink, unlike the cost needed to watch shows or movies.
A lot of people who don’t use TikTok don’t understand why TikTok users are so upset about the ban. After all, it’s just a silly social media app. Some simply assume that people are so upset because they’re losing access to their dopamine fix, and it’s probably better for them to get off their phones anyway. People with this view are missing a few things: it makes sense that people are mourning the loss of a platform of congregation and that the ban on TikTok is not really about TikTok. It goes deeper than that.
The TikTok ban is another method of control for the US government, and an attempt to control the spread of information. The TikTok algorithm is unique from the algorithms of Meta apps, because it is so heavily impacted by the content that the user interacts with. It makes it easier for interested people to learn about different social issues, perspectives, and cultures, with input from people who have real experience. While it does have its share of censorship issues, the algorithm of TikTok is so heavily dependent on the viewer’s interactions that completely suppressing information can be difficult.
Your personal opinions about the app don’t matter—you should care about this situation. Apathy towards a ban like this changes our cultural landscape in a way that will eventually impact most people. If TikTok becomes permanently banned in the US, and the American people don’t care, it sets a precedent for our government to do similar things to other platforms. Because of this, the TikTok ban is an ominous sign of what’s to come in the United States. Although the ban has been represented as an urge to protect American data, it will censor the ideas of Americans.
The framing of the ban as an act of protection is almost insulting, especially considering the mass data gathering that our other, American-run social media sites use.
Finally circling back to January 18th, our concerns are confirmed and elevated upon experiencing our first taste of the restrictions. While the app stayed on our phones and still opened, it was not possible to scroll or watch videos. The screen was blocked by a pop-up alerting users that the services were no longer available in the United States. Concerningly, this notice included the line, “We are fortunate that President Trump has indicated that he will work with us on a solution to reinstate TikTok once he takes office.”
The message positions Trump as the “savior of TikTok,” a role that he has, in reality, done absolutely nothing to deserve. Even if he did bring TikTok back to the US, that doesn’t matter. What does matter is the impact of his actions, including the 30+ executive orders that he signed in the first week of his presidency. Trump is also the one to originally bring up concerns with TikTok and data mining, which makes the fact that he is being painted as the one to save TikTok further hypocritical. Trump has put a bandaid over a bullet wound, and the government as well as TikTok doesn’t want you to notice that he is holding the gun. It is clear to see that the threat of losing this beloved app is being leveraged to improve public opinion of Trump. It’s another way to promote Donald Trump to voters, particularly young and uneducated people who are more likely to take information at face value.
No matter how you look at it, it’s impossible to deny that the ban is politically motivated. Moving forward in this new era of democracy, it’s important to read into things, because an app surely won’t be the worst thing we lose.