PARIS — It feels like there's a huge misunderstanding about my generation and TikTok. Our esteemed elders have some warped ideas about Gen Z and our favorite social media, slapping us with the label “TikTok Generation” as some kind of diss. For me, I embrace the platform, though like every social media, it isn’t all perfect, all the time.
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So we are told that we’re wasting all of our time scrolling TikTok, that we’re all looking for attention — or losing it, addicted to vapid videos of dancing and brainrot. This isn’t a complete lie, but it isn’t the whole truth either. While I do enjoy my fair share of brainrot, a slang term invented for spending too much time scrolling pointless videos, I also like to dive into the political content that comes across my feed. Even if TikTok isn’t my main source for the news, it does connect me like no other source does to global events — through the eyes of those living them.
There's a lot to unpack about the global political impact of banning TikTok in the U.S., which the Congress has ordered by January if its American affiliate is not sold to a non-Chinese firm. But for me, the starting point is what such a ban would mean for my generation’s freedom of speech. Even with all its flaws, TikTok has become a vital platform for Gen Z to find our voice. About a third of American adults between the age of 18 and 29 regularly get their news from TikTok, according to Pew Research from November 2023.
In the middle of an election year, with international tensions and a climate crisis ever more on the brink, the U.S. is threatening to silence us by banning the platform we rely on to participate in our democracy.
Digital push
TikTok has become a place for collective political expression for the youth. While offline protests are still crucial, we're also creating counter-narratives online, encouraging critical thinking about media consumption — all while keeping our sense of humor.
Although movements like Black Lives Matter and #MeToo first found the spotlight on Twitter, it was TikTok that made the George Floyd protests come alive by broadcasting from the streets during the summer of 2020. It has recently been used by activists to help shine light into the illegal cobalt mining in DRC, and document the campus protests around the world in support of Palestinians. TikTok transcends geographical boundaries creating a global space for solidarity and coordinated action.
Elise Joshi is a 21 year old influencer who uses TikTok to educate Gen Z about political issues happening in the United States. In an interview with BBC, she stated that “over 1.1 million letters were sent to the White House urging to stop an 8 billion dollar oil drilling project in Alaska, the vast majority of the letters that were sent were coming from the educational side of TikTok.” Ultimately, the Biden administration canceled the remaining drilling leases.
The looming TikTok ban has come alongside downranking on political content from Instagram. Instagram reels would be a clear alternative for TikTok educational content creators, but as of March Instagram has introduced a new algorithm that censors political content from users you don’t already follow. Even before the filter bubble, Instagram had already begun censoring users discussing the Israel-Hamas war using shadowbanning and account restrictions.
Many Gen Z content creators and consumers of TikTok have already stated they would rather find a new app then try and migrate their content over to Instagram. If TikTok is banned, I’m expecting a small setback for global solidarity as my generation finds a new digital space to host these conversations. But we’re known for our resilience, we will find a new space.
A TikTok ban would only disconnect us further from the rest of the world.
Proponents of the ban argue that TikTok’s Chinese owners have manipulated its algorithm to further divide America. They believe, for example, that a disproportionate amount of pro-Palestinian content is being shown to users to sow dissension and even violence in the American populace. But the truth is that Gen Z has embraced TikTok as a vehicle for political expression in the face of a brutal war. The surge in pro-Palestinian content reflects our generation's perspective, not algorithmic manipulation. We're actively raising awareness of issues and participating in discussions surrounding topics we care about, not passively consuming traditional media narratives. The discomfort some may feel is simply a result of Gen Z's willingness to tackle tough topics.
Root of the issue is data privacy
On the surface, it can seem like Gen Z are just TikTok scrollers fighting to keep our video platform, but in a broader context, this TikTok ban would only disconnect us further from the rest of the world. The United States loudly criticizes China's "Great Firewall" for isolating its citizens and barring social media like Facebook and Instagram, yet when a foreign app like TikTok becomes popular globally, we mimic their tactics out of our own fears of the public will.
It may indeed be a generational issue even more than a geopolitical one.
But the root of this problem may be linked to a bigger issue in the U.S.: the failure to have proper data privacy laws in place that protects the consumer. While some individual states have enacted their own laws to safeguard consumer information, like the California Consumer Privacy Act or Florida’s Digital Bill of Rights, there's currently no comprehensive federal user data privacy law in place.
Will the U.S. finally tackle the real issue: ensuring stricter data privacy laws that give the American people more control over their information and holding big (American) tech firms accountable for breaches and misuse? If you look at the TikTok ban through this lens, it may indeed be a generational issue even more than a geopolitical one. The social media giants being displaced by TikTok are all founded and/or run by U.S.-based millennials and Gen Xers, bound to benefit if the government ban goes forward. As for me, whenever Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk show up in my TikTok feed, I just keep scrolling.