Tiktok

TikTok is a China-owned video messaging app (software for mobile devices) which has become the most visited site in the United States, dethroning Google in 2021. TikTok has been accused of creating "political echo chambers," whereby one's political views are reinforced by a pre-selection of videos constantly fed to him based on his prior selections.^[1]

Social media monopolists are perhaps the most opposed to TikTok, and have the most to lose from its competition. TickTok has pulled enormous traffic away from the Leftist Silicon Valley websites.

Here's the list of the top ten as of 2021:^[2]

1. TikTok.com
2. Google.com
3. Facebook.com
4. Microsoft.com
5. Apple.com
6. Amazon.com
7. Netflix.com
8. YouTube.com
9. Twitter.com
10. WhatsApp.com

The average time spent (wasted?) on TikTok is reportedly 91 minutes per day, compared with 60 minutes daily for Facebook and 32 mins daily for Instagram.

TikTok claims more than 100 million American users, and was ordered on August 6, 2020, by President Donald Trump to transfer its ownership to an American company within 45 days or else be sanctioned. TikTok became popular because it facilitates the creation and distribution of short videos on cell phones.

TikTok sued in federal court in San Francisco to block Trump's Executive Order against it.^[3]

On September 14, 2020, TikTok announced a deal with Oracle to try to remain in the United States.^[4]

TikTok was largely unknown to the American public until Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez name-dropped the platform while bragging online about TikTok being used to largely cut into attendance at a Donald Trump rally in Tulsa during the 2020 presidential election campaign via fake ticket registrations by teenage anti-Trump TikTok users (some of which she also identified as fans of Korean pop music, or "K-Pop") who would then no-show the event, done with the intent of sabotaging the rally by preventing legitimate attendance by Trump supporters (who were also slandered by Ocasio-Cortez as "white supremacists").^[5]

In October 2022 Russia fined TikTok for pushing LGBT content.^[6]

Marketing on TikTok[edit]

TikTok is rapidly becoming a top site for marketing:

Greater Influence than other Social Media[edit]

Video length[edit]

TikTok video length continues to length with new releases, and as of January 2023 allows up to 10 minutes.^[9]

Bans on TikTok[edit]

After mostly Republican states banned the used of TikTok on government-issued devices in 2022, the University of Texas blocked access to TikTok through its networks on its Austin campus on Jan. 16, 2023.^[10]

References[edit]