Why The TikTok Ban Does Actually Matter (Even If You Don't Like TikTok)

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00:00The looming possibility of a TikTok ban in the U.S. has been causing chaos online.

00:05But the problem is actually a lot deeper than just the loss of a random social media app.

00:10It's easy to brush off the TikTok ban since, to many, it's just seen as a goofy app for

00:14annoying youth. But it's actually part of a long history of using popular media,

00:19and our access to it, as a means of control. Looking at the ban within the larger context

00:24of history can provide us with a better framework with which to engage with it,

00:28and possibly even some hope for the future. There have been many video-sharing platforms

00:33online over the years. Even before YouTube began in 2005, there were sites like YouTheManNowDog

00:39where people could share clips and creations with the world. But with its rise over the last few

00:43years, TikTok seems to have captured a very special place within the social media ecosystem.

00:49It began as lip-syncing app musically, but has evolved into a behemoth of social media that

00:55contains video of essentially every type one could imagine. While it has continued to be home for

01:00videos and hilarious moments, it has also become a place where people can have genuine deep discussions

01:06on a large scale. To write off the app, used by over 150 million people in the U.S. alone,

01:12as just a showcase for self-centered kids, ignores so much of what the app really contains. People are

01:18able to share their own work and their favorite works of others out to audiences who likely never

01:23would have found it otherwise. And this is one thing users love so much about TikTok. In a world where we

01:28feel like we're constantly having to dig through slop forever just in the hopes of finding something we

01:33might like and then having to worry that if we finally do, it'll be destroyed in some way or

01:38canceled or even deleted forever for a tax write-off. TikTok and its mysteriously powerful algorithm

01:44provide a constant stream of things we do want to watch. There are, of course, exceptions. From

01:49creators who seemed able to game the system, to users who would continually engage with content they

01:55claimed not to like and then complain that they were getting shown that same kind of content.

01:59TikTok is by no means a perfect app. While much good has come from it, it has also been used to

02:05spread misinformation and create pylons and also has its own share of censorship issues. So all of

02:12these different facets have come together to create a rather complex conversation around the possible

02:17ban of the app. Everything begins with choice. No, wrong. Choice is an illusion created between those

02:25and those with power and those without. And as always, there's more to the story than shallow

02:30reports might suggest. While the framing often used around these kinds of bans, that it's all about

02:36keeping people safe, is often dubious at best, which we'll talk about in a moment, there are some real

02:42safety concerns that we all have to deal with every day. While we love our phones for keeping us

02:47connected to our favorite apps, listening to music and watching videos, sometimes it feels like they're nearly

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02:58spam calls every day, we've just started ignoring all of them. And don't even get us started on those

03:04spam texts. Not only is this super annoying, it also means that we have to worry about missing a genuine

03:10call or message. I almost missed an important call from my bank once because I thought it was spam at first.

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04:13Some people say, and likely already have been yelling about in the comments,

04:17that comparing the TikTok ban to things like film or book bans is ridiculous,

04:21because books and films matter, and TikTok is just a silly social media app with no value.

04:26But A, that's not true, and B ignores the larger issue. Not the specifics of,

04:31but the intentions behind, bans.

04:33Choice. The problem is choice.

04:37The media we create is a big part of how we connect with one another and share our most

04:41important thoughts and ideas. And this is true for short form content just like it is with books,

04:45films, and music. Sure, there are a lot of TikToks that maybe don't hold much cultural value,

04:51but that's also true of every kind of media. One boring banal TV show with nothing to say

04:56existing doesn't mean that TV as a concept is useless. And in that same vein, the more mindless

05:02side of TikTok doesn't automatically negate the more thoughtful and engaged communities that have

05:06sprung up there. Because of the power that media of all kinds can wield, unsurprisingly,

05:11people in power have long had an interest in taking control over the avenues of creation

05:16and dissemination of this media. And so the definition of intellectual freedom has a second

05:22integral part, and that is total and complete freedom of access to all information and ideas

05:28regardless of the medium of communication used. It's much easier to shape and control what a population

05:34thinks if you're more easily able to shape and control the ideas they even have access to in

05:39the first place. The ability to express one's opinions, however, does not really mean very much

05:45if there is not someone to hear what he is saying. Book bans have been around essentially as long as

05:51books themselves. While the ability to print and share information en masse was great for the public,

05:56it was a threat to the status quo. Way back in 1601, for example, Queen Elizabeth I demanded part of

06:02Shakespeare's Richard II be removed because it had allegedly influenced an uprising against her.

06:08In her piece on the history of book bans for National Geographic, Erin Blakemore writes of the

06:12U.S. In 1873, the war against books went federal with the passage of the Comstock Act, a congressional

06:18law that made it illegal to possess obscene or immoral texts or articles or send them through the mail.

06:24The law criminalized the activities of birth control advocates and forced popular pamphlets like

06:30Margaret Singer's family limitation underground. And far from dying out, this issue has ramped up in

06:35recent years. Blakemore notes, the American Library Association reports that there were

06:40a record-breaking number of attempts to ban books in 2023, up 65% from the previous year, which was

06:47itself a record-breaking year. The visual arts have also long been trapped under the watchful eye of

06:52censors. In the U.S., the Hays Code was adopted in 1934 in an attempt to establish and maintain the

06:59highest possible moral and artistic standards in motion picture production, by banning everything

07:05from profanity to even the suggestion of sexuality and beyond. This code allowed the people in charge to

07:11control what kinds of films were made, and thus what kind of content audiences were allowed to watch.

07:17During the Cold War, interest turned more toward controlling political thought. The House Committee on

07:22Un-American Activities was created and went on a war path to take complete control over Hollywood,

07:27concerned not only with the content of the films, but also the people making them, and led to the

07:32Hollywood Blacklist, a group of creatives who were banned from working in Hollywood because of alleged

07:38communist or subversive ties. Even today, MPAA ratings have a major impact on how widely films are

07:44able to be screened. Media, in all of its forms, can be a very powerful tool. It has the ability to

07:51educate people and bring them together, or to keep them confused and disconnected.

07:56While the first seems like an obvious good, the latter is what makes it much easier for people who

08:01are already in power to stay in power. And that's why far-ranging bans pop up again and again anytime

08:07any sort of media starts allowing people to share ideas outside of the control of those at the top.

08:12Thought crime is so insidious, it just creeps up in you.

08:19Regardless of the type of media in question, books, movies, apps, etc., there's usually an

08:24attempt to frame their usage as degeneracy. Why would you want to read that book anyways? What's

08:30wrong with you? Those movies aren't even good, they're full of lies. That's just a dumb app for

08:34kids, who cares if it goes away? This allows the people looking to do the banning to frame anyone who

08:40tries to go against the ban as automatically part of the problem, which makes it easier to hand wave

08:45away their concerns. It's also often framed as a threat to security for a group of people or even

08:50the entire country. For example, book bans are often framed as being there to protect children

08:55from getting too many ideas. The TikTok ban has been touted as an issue of national security. An

09:01adversarial country having all of the data on US citizens could be a big problem. But those pushing

09:06for the ban haven't actually provided much concrete evidence of that actually happening.

09:11Excuse me, sir. Would you like to read about the First Amendment?

09:14Sir, not a little education.

09:16You know your rights, sir.

09:18And more central to much of the pushback, the fact that these same people have never really

09:23seemed to care much at all about other major breaches or misuse of our data also deflates this

09:28idea that the concern is just over keeping us and our data safe. The real concern, it seems,

09:33stems from how the app has been used so effectively to educate people on a huge range of topics.

09:38Global conflicts, issues closer to home, our rights, and also allowed people to organize together

09:44around these topics. So given all of this, what should we actually take away from the TikTok ban?

09:50Or even just the furor around it if it does end up getting saved at the last second?

09:54TikTok has been a useful tool for having fun and learning and organizing, but it's certainly not the

10:00end-all be-all, and as we discussed, does have its own share of issues. The loss of the algorithm

10:05sending us content that really does feel made for us will certainly be a bummer.

10:08But hopefully people will also realize that even if you aren't being directly fed that content,

10:13that doesn't mean that it's not out there. Instead of giving up or just hoping for the best on old

10:18apps, hopefully it will spur people to begin actively seeking out the kind of content that

10:22they want to see in the places that it does exist, and even continuing to create it themselves.

10:27Book, film, and music bands never really stopped the creation of important, engaging,

10:30and even radical work. They just altered the avenues through which they were created,

10:34shared, and protected by the communities that cared for them.

10:38Band Books Week was started in 1982 in response to a sudden surge in the number of challenges to books.

10:45For TikTok, that likely won't look like everyone gathering in a basement somewhere to secretly watch

10:50old TikToks, though that could be pretty fun. But figuring out the essence of what drew people to the

10:55content they loved and finding new avenues to share it. Finding communities post-ban without the

11:00assistance of the algorithm, or even having to work against algorithms, may not be easy,

11:05but it is possible. TikTok on its own isn't the totality of social media or modern connection,

11:11but it and the ban are both important parts of our time. So whether the ban goes through or not,

11:17hopefully this all spurs people to think more deeply about the media they interact with,

11:21what it really means to them, and what it means to lose it.

11:26That's the take! Click here to watch the video we think you'll love,

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