We Need to Talk About the Tik Tok Ban

Right now, I think it’s safe to assume that a lot of us are probably feeling a bit drained. Or we feel overwhelmed by information overload. With the Tik Tok ban looming, it has sparked a lot of conversations in reference to our government trying to control us, and what our other options are.

Some people are choosing to just sink everything into their Meta platforms. Others are going to Lemon8, which is owned by the same company that owns Tik Tok, so they are probably getting banned too. Capcut is probably on the chopping block as well, unfortunately.

I’ve watched a lot of my favorite creators expressing their gratitude to their followers through teary eyes, and it really breaks my heart. Aside from the creators who were bringing us daily laughs or motivation to clean our houses, we also had the creators who were sharing information with us that wasn’t being shown in the media. I learned about a lot of things happening in the world because of Tik Tok.

Before I go any further, if you weren’t already aware, I am a leftist. I advocate loudly for women’s rights, LGBTQ rights, equal rights for people of color, and the right for anyone to follow, or not follow, any religion that speaks to them. I am absolutely intolerant to any form of bigotry, and if you are the kind of person who makes Christianity your whole personality, I will go in the complete opposite direction. Now that we’ve got that out of the way…

This whole argument that the supreme court has made as to why banning Tik Tok is a good thing is so infuriating. They tell us that it’s to protect our data from the Chinese government. The US servers for Tik Tok aren’t even in China. They are here, and the Chinese government does not have access to them. Do you know what data China does have access to? Everything from Meta. That’s right. Facebook, Instagram, Threads, Whatsapp, etc. That information was literally sold to China years ago. Nobody seems to care. The only reason so many citizens are concerned about it now is because the media is telling them to care.

It’s the same case for the BLM movement or trans rights. Majority of people wouldn’t even be aware of any of this if the right wing media didn’t blow it all out of proportion. When these people are literally just begging to be seen as human and treated with the most basic respect a person should get from another person, some right-winger is there to call them criminals and pedos, while simultaneously completely ignoring the heinous acts being committed by thousands of men in churches all across the country.

Because of Tik Tok, we were able to see a lot of things that the establishment would love for us to be blind to. It’s no wonder that it’s the only issue that everyone on the supreme court could come to an agreement on.

But, I do love the irony of Americans basically saying,” You know what, I’m just going to talk directly to China!” and then they downloaded RedNote, the Chinese version of Tik Tok. These people are also learning that China is not the complete hellscape that our government makes it out to be. Some people are even attempting to learn Mandarin just so they can have better conversations with people. As a lifelong rebel, I just love seeing people collectively give “The Man” the middle finger.

I personally don’t think I’ll be getting on RedNote. I’ve been putting most of my focus into Instagram and Threads. As much as I hate giving that satisfaction to Mark Zuckerberg, Instagram is a platform I have always enjoyed and Threads is literally my new haven to find my besties. I am considering Bluesky just to see what the fuss is about. I will NEVER join X. I didn’t even like it when it was still Twitter. I have tried using Twitter since 2009, but I just never enjoyed it. I’m actually glad Elon bought it because now I don’t even need to consider it anymore. If his name is on it, I don’t want it!

I would really love to hope that there is a tech genius kid out there who is tirelessly working to create a new app similar to Tik Tok. Which reminds me….if you didn’t already know, there is a website called SpaceHey! It’s basically an exact replica of mid 2000s MySpace. I remember hearing about it a couple of years ago, and now I think I might just sign up. If you’re a millennial like me, there’s a good chance you were also on MySpace, and if there’s one thing all of us miss, it’s the old MySpace. Having an awesome layout, adding music to your page, getting to send DMs, comment on peoples pages, bulletins, blog posts. MySpace had it ALL. So yeah, maybe a dose of early social media nostalgia is something we all need.

These are strange times we live in, friends. Whatever happens next, stay true to yourself and don’t let anyone try to dim your sparkle! If we all stand together, we all win!

xoxo–Amanda