(Again?)
I’m unclear about the unique national security risk Washington believes Tik Tok to be. The questioning from members of congress last week showed they are clueless about social media so I’m not convinced. (Emptywheel has some thoughts on that question.)
Be that as it may, I am very sure of the political risk that banning tik-tok will bring to the Democratic Party and I don’t know if these people are savvy enough to realize it. This article spells it out:
For Chris Mowrey, a TikTok creator who posts popular videos focused on politics, the app represents more than just a platform: It provides a sense of community for his generation, connecting like-minded users and motivating them to take action.
TikTok had a “massive influence on young people getting out to vote” in the 2022 midterm elections, Mowrey argued to me in an interview, particularly for those Democratic-leaning voters who may have felt isolated in a red state or area. “When you can connect in a short-form video in a community, where you have all these comments of people saying, ‘It’s not pointless, I live here,’ or ‘I agree,’ it almost gives you this sense, like, OK, maybe we can get this thing done. And it drives you to make a decision, like going to the voting booth,” he said.
Mowrey, a 21-year-old student at Kennesaw State University in Georgia, is one of many TikTok creators who have carved out a place for themselves on the app; he’s amassed more than 61,000 followers on his account since September. His posts offer short bursts of earnest yet frenetic commentary, blond hair flopping into his eyes as he rants about Republican priorities or touts progressive policies, directly appealing to the camera in videos staged from his car or bathroom. The videos have the feel of a conversation with a particularly energetic and politically attuned friend, one who encourages others to care about the worldas much as he does.
But Mowrey could soon lose his platform, and millions of young TikTok users their primary source of news and information, as Congress and the Biden administration mull taking steps to ban TikTok over growing national security concerns. Evenif such drastic action is deemed by the federal government to be necessary, there will likely be significant political repercussions, potentially alienating young voters ahead of the critical 2024 elections.
Those security concerns aren’t unfounded. TikTok is owned by Chinese parent company ByteDance; the Biden administration and various members of Congress fret that user data can be accessed and shared with the Chinese government. The FBI and the Justice Department are reportedly investigating ByteDance’s use of TikTok to surveil U.S. citizens, including journalists. TikTok has also been a hotbed for misinformation.
Nevertheless, TikTok has 150 million active users in the United States, NBC News reported, with around 138 million of voting age. A recent Quinnipiac poll found that while 49 percent of Americans overall support banning TikTok, 63 percent of Americans between the ages of 18 and 34 oppose a ban.
TikTok is not the only social media app that has proliferated misinformation and disinformation about politics and elections, nor is it the only company that may be playing fast and loose with user data, although the U.S. government’s concern stems largely from whether that data is then being accessed and utilized by the Chinese government. Annie Wu Henry, who served as a social media producer on Senator John Fetterman’s campaign and ran its popular TikTok account, told me that Gen Zers might feel particularly targeted by a ban.
“I think that they are going to view it as if they’re getting their voices stifled in a medium that they as a generation have really owned,” Henry said. “There’s problems on every social media app, and taking the one away that Gen Z has really utilized—they’re the largest demographic on the platform. I think it’s very much going to be taken personally.”
I think so too. This is the platform of the young and the idea that a bunch of old people in Washington would ban their dance videos and recipes and all the other innocuous stuff (which makes up the vast majority of posting) will look like specific punishment to them, especially when all the geriatrics’ platforms like Facebook and twitter are allowed to carry on.
Everyone would be fine if we banned all social media, of course. Instagram can be a very reasonable substitute for TikTok. But it’s very difficult to build a following online and those who make money on the platform will be shit out of luck. These Washington pols may not understand how these platforms work (and maybe they don’t care) but the young demographic that uses TikTok are a major Democratic party demographic and they should think long and hard about offending them.