America’s unhealthy (and unreasonable) obsession with a social media app.
The United States continues its long time tradition of ignoring the serious struggles its people are facing. Forget inflation, forget healthcare. The issue is TikTok. Yes, TikTok, the incredibly popular app where people dance, bake, and gossip. That is the app that was recently under threat of a nationwide ban. It was in fact banned however, for less than a day. The reason, you may ask. National security. Or at least that’s what the men in suits in Washington keep telling us. Just like you, I enjoy a good spy thriller. But do we really believe that the Chinese Communist Party is sitting around in a black-out boardroom, analyzing Tim’s latest “day in the life” vlog? And if they are, how is that any different from the US government spying on its people through Meta?
TikTok is owned by a Chinese company called ByteDance. The US government claims that this means that China could access American user data. Of course, that’s awful. However, if you’re truly concerned about privacy, TikTok is hardly the only app that consumers should be side eyeing. Not when Facebook exists. Facebook knows what you ate for lunch. Instagram knows you just ended a relationship. This is why the algorithm keeps pushing advertisements from online counseling services such as BetterHelp. Google knows your deepest, darkest secrets. Even through Incognito mode. And let’s not forget Amazon’s Alexa, which is definitely eavesdropping but somehow still cannot comprehend when you ask her to play a specific song. Folks, maybe this is pessimistic of me. But we are already doomed. Everything is spying on us. There is no saving us. This is why it boggles my mind when western leaders accuse other countries of doing the same thing that they are already doing. The same lies. The same crimes. It’s okay if we do it, but it’s not okay if other countries do it. That totally sounds fair.
Why is TikTok being singled out? Is It truly about keeping Americans safe? Some believe that it is about politics. And then there’s the fact that Facebook and Instagram, which are both owned by Meta, have been deeply concerned about TikTok. Meta is also heavily involved in lobbying Congress.
Banning a social media platform is not as simple as deleting it. It is a legal nightmare. The First Amendment protects free speech, and by that logic, TikTok is speech. It is memes, rants, political commentary. If the US government suddenly decided that one platform should be wiped off the face of the internet, what is stopping them from going after the others? Probably the fact that the other platforms are owned by American organizations.
Let’s not pretend that this isn’t political. The US and China have been in a passive- aggressive Cold War for decades. TikTok is just another chess piece in this turf. Washington wants ByteDance to sell TikTok to an American company. That is pretty much like saying, “we don’t trust you, but if you give us your lunch money, we will try to reconsider.” China, of course, is not thrilled by this idea.
The second TikTok was banned, millions of users flocked to RedNote, another Chinese-owned social media platform that is a mix of Instagram, TikTok, and Pinterest. As it turns out, if you remove TikTok, people will just try to find a replacement. Who could’ve seen that coming? Not everyone, I write with sarcasm.
Whilst lawmakers celebrated their big move over TikTok, Americans had already moved on to RedNote, continuing their doomscrolling habits like nothing had changed. The irony is beautiful. It’s almost as if the US government believed that they could get rid of fries by attempting to ban McDonalds, only to find that people were lining up at Dairy Queen the next day.
The interesting thing is that some American consumers do not care if the Chinese government is spying on them. They believe that the American government has already been doing that job. Social media companies are known to sell our data to advertisers like it’s on sale. If you are having a conversation with your friend about a particular topic, you will soon open your phone to see advertisements of the thing you were talking about moments ago. I have accepted that the beautiful phenomena that we know of as privacy, is sadly a myth the times we are living in. In a way, this is freeing, but it is also deeply unsettling.
Nobody could have predicted what happened hours after TikTok had been banned. It was back up. Yes, you read that correctly. My suspicion is that the entire thing was faked, so that Donald Trump could be seen as a hero, and so that the market could go up. This was just another ploy for billionaires and oligarchs to line their already wealthy pockets and make more money.
Today, TikTok is still here. RedNote is partially thriving, although many people who initially signed up for it have abandoned the platform and have decided to go back to TikTok. No matter what happens, you would have to pry TikTok off the cold, dead hands of consumers. It has gotten to the point where many people use the platform as a search engine. It has replaced Google in some ways. And the amazing thing is that you can see real reviews of whatever you are looking for.
TikTok is not just a goofy distraction for people. It is a cultural revolution. It is a news source, a major source for entertainment, and a platform that connects people from all backgrounds and walks of life. America has bigger problems than whether or not China knows how much time American TikTok users spend watching cat videos. Maybe, just maybe, the leaders who govern the US should spend more time on more pressing problems in the United States.
Until then, keep scrolling! And download your favourite TikTok reels and videos, just in case the government decides to ban TikTok again and it does come back within hours.
