I started using TikTok in 2020 as a way to promote my music. It's become one of my favorite ways to pass time during slow periods at work. So I've been following the drama this week about it being banned. In fact, I've been following it since 2020 when the banning was first proposed -- by Trump.
Yes, Trump was the first to propose banning TikTok, back in 2020. The popular theory on TikTok at the time was that it was because TikTokers supposedly bought out all the seats to one of his campaign events and then intentionally didn't show up. The result was that the event was very poorly attended. I don't know if that's really why he suddenly wanted to ban TikTok in the waning days of his first presidency, but that's what people were saying at the time.
He's apparently flip-flopped on this issue now. Why would that be? Clearly because he's seen an opportunity for political points.
I've found it very strange, in the last week, how the CEO of TikTok has suddenly appeared out of the woodwork. I'd never seen him or heard of him before this week. Now he's testifying before Congress and posting videos on TikTok, which TikTok undoubtedly promoted to every possible American user.
And in those videos, he was talking about how they were working with "President Trump" to solve the problem.*
Despite that, the app was shuttered and taken offline for Americans at 10:30 pm Saturday night, much sooner than anyone expected. Biden had already said he wasn't going to enforce the ban, and Trump had already publicly stated that he would "probably" delay the ban.
So why did they shutter the app, especially given that the ban didn't even require that to begin with? It only required the app stores to stop allowing new downloads and updates.
The app only remained shuttered for about 12 hours. Today, this was the message on my Android version of TikTok:
It's pretty clear to me what has taken place. Trump's team has obviously been in talks with TikTok. TikTok clearly agreed to shutter the app for 12 hours, then bring it back up and give credit to Trump, to make him look like a hero. They did this in exchange for his promise to delay the ban (he can delay it up to 90 days) and then get the Republican-led Congress to overturn it. He controls the GOP, so he can force them to all change their votes (this ban was passed originally with broad Republican support).
That's the only explanation that makes any sense for the events of the last 12 hours. There is no logical reason, otherwise, why TikTok would shutter the app when they didn't have to, or why they have so openly and and shamelessly namedropped Trump in their relaunch message.
This is a perfect example of the kind of manipulation and gaslighting that is going to become the norm for the next four years, as the media and corporate America all fall in line to the new reality of an American oligarchy led by a virtual dictator. America as we know it is pretty much finished, I think.
*The TikTok CEO, who is a Singaporean, had the nerve in his TikTok updates to wield the old "Freedom of Speech" line. Dude, you're a Southeast Asian who is the CEO of a Chinese company. The First Amendment does not apply to you or your company, and has no bearing whatsoever on this case! In fact, his manipulating, propagandistic messages were EXACTLY the sort of thing that caused Congress to ban the app in the first place! His messages were basically Chinese propaganda, using specious arguments about our own constitution! But that's beyond the grasp of 90% of the teenagers and 20-somethings who use TikTok. His videos had millions of likes.
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