I don't know anyone who uses TikTok as an organizing tool more successfully than Virginia progressive Jessica Anderson. So I asked her to give us a look at the issue in front of Congress now from a personal perspective. She's the Blue America-endorsed candidate for Delegate from the Williamsburg area, a competitive new district that can make all the difference in the Democrats wresting control of the House from the Republicans. If you like what she has to say, please consider helping her fund her campaign with a contribution here. Let me also suggest you take a look at AOC's first-ever TikTok video, posted yesterday. "Do I believe TikTok should be banned,?" she asked. "No... I think it’s important to discuss how unprecedented of a move this would be. The United States has never before banned a social media company from existence, from operating in our borders. And this is an app that has over 150 million Americans on it."
Is TikTok’s Time Up?
-by Jessica Anderson
Three years ago, almost to the day, during the onset of covid, I joined Tiktok to find some joy and a way to pass the time, in a stressful and isolating time. What started as scrolling evolved to making silly lip sync videos, running blogs and ooo-ta-dahs, but with each video my confidence grew. And the months leading up to the January 6th insurrection, I fell into an algorithm of political content creators and I thought to myself, I could do this. And just like that, I found my voice, and used that voice to educate others, tell my story and grew my community with over 600k followers. But sadly, that community, experience and level of reach is all on the chopping block, in the halls of Congress.
Over the years we’ve watched the likes of Meta, aka Facebook and Instagram, as well as Twitter, compromise our personal data and allow foreign interference to fuel division and push disinformation, and yet no evidence of TikTok doing the same has been introduced. Congress’ entire argument is based on “what ifs”, but the reality is this is about controlling the narrative of the American people and infringing on our 1st amendment rights.
To be clear, no other platform allows the reach and the curated algorithm, like TikTok. And it appears with the influence of Mark Zuckerberg, through Meta, they are going to destroy our ability to maintain the relationships we’ve built and the ability to organize on a platform by taking out Tiktok nationally. From trolling trump rallies, to crashing websites that target educators and the trans community, Tiktok has proven, that we the people, using this app, have the power. And the moment the Congressional hearing was in the works, Meta showed its hand (and its involvement) by terminating the bonus payments to creators on Instagram Reels, which was created to compete with the Tiktok Creator fund. Why would they need to pay creators for their content anymore when they know they won’t have another competitor, the answers easy, they don’t.
The reality is Tiktok has allowed for unionization, growing organizations and creating small businesses. Tiktok being banned isn’t just removing a “kids dancing app,” it’s destroying a community that more than 150 million US citizens participate in, for a variety of purposes. This isn’t about China, this isn’t about protecting American’s data, this isn’t even about Republicans and Democrats, it’s about maintaining power! If you remove the ability for people across the nation to connect with purpose, you control the people.