The wildest thing to come out of the TikTok ban is the amount of influencers admitting to just straight up LYING and scamming people.
Like.
We all knew most influencers were shady, of course. But they are just admitting it with their full chest because they think the app is vanishing.
And. Y'all. Even if it DOES vanish those videos are still gonna be out there. People have downloaded them. People have screen recorded them. What did these influencers think was gonna happen? The app was gonna vanish and people's memories were gonna be deleted along with it?
Hilarious, honestly.
I’ve seen a lot of people upset about the ban saying things like they learned so much from TikTok and it’s like burning the library of Alexandria and I just…
SO much of it is/was bait and scams and nothing more. Most of the stuff people act like they couldn’t have learned anywhere else is basic shit you would have come across in school if you paid attention or just took a moment to look up things you’re curious about. The reasoning behind the ban is asinine but the people who seem dependent on it to function also really concern me. There’s a level of gullibility that makes my skin itch.
I can see why our gov wants that sort of easily led energy to stay stateside. Money too of course, always money. But watching the crossover as people migrate to new places is eye opening. Zero critical thinking involved. Just 100% buy in that what they see and hear is absolute truth with zero nuance or bias.
That’s objectively concerning and I’m sure why influencers thrive(d) on that app.
NOPE. Stop that. I will block you if you put takes like this on my posts on TikTok. It is not acceptable, it is not okay, and it shows a fundamental misunderstanding of the entire situation. If you don't like TikTok, that's fine. But you do not get to put down the value that app has provided just because you personally do not like it.
One-hundred-seventy-million people use the app in the US alone. That is fifty-percent of the entire US population. Millions of businesses have gotten their start on TikTok, or have seen massive boosts to their already existing businesses. Millions of people have been able to create a survivable income for themselves on the app.
"All stuff they could've learned in school." Hey, guess what? School does not in fact download about every fact about every single thing ever into your brain! No one can know everything and anything that ignites people's curiosity is a good thing. How are people even supposed to know to do the basic research in the first place about topics they've never even heard of? Do you know how many people I follow on TikTok who went back to school, got a regular second degree or even a Masters or PhD or something else because of stuff they saw on TikTok igniting their curiosity enough? So fucking many.
If all you've seen on there is a lack of critical thinking, well. You build your own algorithm based on what you interact with, so...
Let's also talk about the fact that so many of those businesses are run by women and people of colour, who were able to find community and connection. That queer people were able to find community and connection. That so many trans folks were given a voice.
It is the marginalized that always suffer first and most, something that so many people with more privilege fail to see.
I'm Canadian, so I'm not really impacted, but people were mobilized by Tiktok. BLM after George Floyd was murdered was mobilized and organized largely due to Tiktok. A lot of the anti genocide protests were also mobilized through Tiktok.
People who don't understand that this is the government stepping in to try and control the way in which people communicate need to sit with that for a minute. So many people are about to be thrust into even more poverty while the incoming president is only interested in helping the rich. This is not a coincidence.
^^^All of that.
When we had a single video about our dresses go viral, we made 8% of our money for that year in one weekend. My phone did not stop buzzing with orders for 4 days. Like, literally every 2-5 minutes we got a new order. Because I was sick this year, we never marshalled the energy to get TikTok properly set up, and once I was better, the ban loomed, but if we had and had been able to make even a tenth of that energy sustainable?
I'd have my people full-time and be staring down how to afford their payroll and health insurance.
I have so much empathy for the small business owners in the US who are scrambling right now.
