tiktok was banned :( oh wait never mind it's back now
haha close one y'all i almost gave in and started watching instagram reels!!!
It all began yesterday when all of us TikTok users were met with this message:
It was a message that didn’t mention anything but the facts: a law in the United States was about to ban this app for all people in this country. No comments about who voted for the ban or who could prevent the ban; just that it was leaving and that they were gonna try to bring it back. I mean, I could’ve thought of a better way to say it, but that’s just me. It’s just me saying that I would’ve said something more fun, even though that’s not what it’s about. I may have referenced a famous pop hit from 2010 in this moment, but again, that is just me.
What a threatening notification to receive. But wait! It’s not as threatening as the one we received mere hours later:
I’m not even talking about the part that says TikTok isn’t available; I’m looking at the following paragraph thanking Trump for promising to work with them on reinstating the app. Two days before the inauguration, TikTok is calling Trump a savior. And I swear to god, if Trump is credited with bringing TikTok back right after a ceasefire deal in Gaza is finally happening, I’m gonna have to start working on my will rewrites (not rewrites I do not have a will) because we are going to die. So … hopefully there’s no thanking Trump when TikTok returns because it is definitely going to retu-
Well, that’s just great.
Trump is gonna get credited with saving TikTok even though he … wanted to ban it … in 2020 … this feels … planned … this feels … like a trick ……………………………………..
Can my ghostwriter for Circle Back clarify to you all that TikTok was not banned because of China and our data? China already has our data. Everyone has our data. TikTok was banned because the people who voted to ban it have stock in Meta. It’s all about money, my dears! It’s always been about money! Facebook and Instagram collect more data than TikTok does. It has also added, like, hundreds of thousands of hundred-thousands of jobs to the US economy. I know the social media side is something that people were happy was getting taken away from us, but when they take away jobs and freedom of speech and the right to information et cetera et al in order to “protect us from Chinese Communism,” I’d have to go ahead and say that is just comedic since taking away our first amendment right in this country is something they say is why we should fear China. But Facebook is getting rid of fact-checking! Facebook is allowing propaganda! Facebook is a public company that congresspeople who voted to get rid of TikTok have stock in! And Trump is about to become the favorite president of Gen Z because TikTok thanked him for “bringing it back” after 12 hours! What Is Going On! We Are Going To Die!
Real people use TikTok to try to make a living or a name for themselves or just to make something that viewers might enjoy. Yes, of course, there’s false info on the platform; there’s false info on every single platform in the world. But I learned more about what was going on in Gaza in the past 400 days than I did on the news because there were people in Gaza making TikToks showing us what was really going on. And I learned about how not every single person who votes for Trump is an irrational person — so many of us live in bubbles. AND I learned that the Succession theme song was originally composed by Beethoven! AAAAND I learned that there are cannibals living in the Paris Catacombs!!! I have learned so much on TikTok. And while I’m learning so much on TikTok, this is what I’m seeing on Facebook:
I’ll tell you why pictures like this don’t ever trend; it’s because they show you how die when you look at them for too long.
Yes, social media is exhausting and can be horrible and makes your mom send you reels at 6 AM in the morning in the AM, but you cannot deny that it has also become a very powerful news outlet in positive ways. If I was just watching MSNBC and FOX News, I would know nothing.
But just because TikTok is back already doesn’t mean more removals of our rights to SPRAP (speechpressreligionassemblypetition c’mon 5th grade!) will not continue. TikTok may be on the clock, but the party don’t stop, no. Tomorrow is the inauguration of Donald Trump, so you better wake up in the morning, grab your glasses, and head out the door because it’s time to Hit This City. The party (inauguration) is inside the Capitol this year because Donald’s wig isn’t allowed to be in weather colder than 45 degrees Fahrenheit. So when Carrie Underwood hits that high F in “Land of the Free,” we STORM. We don’t have time to sit around Circle Back readers! We have to TikTok and we have to rise up. Things are happening the way we always feared. We have to organize we have to fight back we have to sing the national anthem better than that lesser American Idol winner. We must persist. We must do better. We can’t sit in fear. We can sit, but only if our backs are hurting (and they always are). In the words of a better country singer, let’s go girls.
movie rec: Eraserhead (1977)
music rec: TikTok by Ke$ha
a place to storm: The Capitol