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Calls for a nation-wide ban on the social media platform TikTok are increasing—across both political parties in the U.S. I built my career criticizing TikTok, but Washington has this wrong. I produced some of the earliest research into mis- and disinformation and extremism on TikTok. I have spent countless hours tearing my hair out in frustration over the company's inability to control misinformation and hate speech on its platform. But I will still be the first to say that banning TikTok is a reckless decision that would ultimately harm the most marginalized in society.
I research information ecosystems on TikTok for a living, but I'm also a TikToker. I have over half a million followers on the platform, and I, like roughly one-third of my fellow Americans, love a good scroll. I speak to this issue as a Gen Z misinformation researcher who has testified to the U.K. Parliament and as a content creator who would be affected by a TikTok ban.
We call TikTok "social media," but really it's best thought of as user-generated television. TikTok users create content which is distributed to other users via the recommendation algorithm, and TikTok rakes in an astronomical profit by selling ads in between those videos. TikTok's algorithm keeps users watching so that they can consume more advertisements, but fundamentally, the platform is only as strong as its user base.
And TikTok has made it easier to be a content creator than ever before. The app facilitates filming, editing, and reacting to other videos, and gives users the potential to achieve virality.
This democratization of content creation has created a culture on the platform that embraces a bottom-up information ecosystem. On TikTok, you're more likely to encounter firsthand accounts of news stories than a fact-checked and polished video from a legacy news company.
As I've pointed out at great length, this bottom-up ecosystem has its drawbacks, notably the proliferation of misinformation, hate speech, and harassment. But it also allows for voices previously excluded from the media to reach unprecedented audiences. And users quickly figured out that they could use the platform for activism.
In June of 2020, TikTok became a hub for Black Lives Matter protests. Videos from the front lines of protests flooded users' feeds. We could see the violence, the comradery, the strategies used in cities around the world. And we could organize. I watched as a creator got arrested walking home from a protest while livestreaming. Immediately, a GoFundMe was organized to pay her bail.
From bomb shelters in Ukraine to protests in Iran, TikTok became a space for virtual activism driven by two major forces: firsthand accounts from people affected by political issues—wars, climate change, police brutality, authoritarian regimes—and the rise of activist-influencers.
While the term "influencer" was originally coined to refer to the market power of people with large social media accounts, the term has taken on a broader meaning. TikTok influencers are no longer seen as valuable just for selling products; rather, they are valuable because they can be trusted messengers to their communities.
I understand the privacy concerns stemming from reporting that TikTok has been weaponized by the Chinese Communist Party to gather data from Americans. But banning TikTok is like applying a dirty, used Band-Aid to the gaping wound that is our broken digital privacy status quo. It would do little to protect the data of Americans but it would cause a host of new problems.
To address this problem at its core, we must regulate the use of data. Why should Google, Meta, and Twitter get a free pass because they're not Chinese-owned?
If we ban TikTok, the channels of communication that have been steadily established over the last half of this decade will cease to exist, leaving some of the most marginalized in our country suddenly in the dark.
The U.S. is at a crossroads. We could dismantle a massive piece of communications infrastructure used by young people, LGBTQ+ people, and people of color, exacerbating existing inequalities in information access. Or alternatively, Congress could implement legislation that serves to protect the digital privacy and safety of all Americans on all platforms.
It's clear what the path forward should be.
Abbie Richards is a TikToker and TikTok misinformation researcher who specializes in understanding how misinformation, conspiracy theories, and extremism spread on TikTok. Her published research can be found here. Richards has amassed a multi-platform following of over half a million people who are interested in learning about these issues and is also a co-founder of EcoTok, an environmental TikTok collective that specializes in social media-based climate communication. For her work as an online educator, Richards was included in the Forbes 30 Under 30 2023 cohort.
The views expressed in this article are the writer's own.
