Not missing TikTok

A quiet rebellion is happening right now that some may not even be aware of. Thornley For years now, TikTok has been the trendy social app to be, now not so. In 2020, President Donald J. Trump told reporters his administration was set on banning the app over claims it was a threat to national security due to the amount of data it collected on its users and concerns that China would attempt to use it to influence American politics. Those concerns backfired on the U.S government, and Trump, in the most spectacular way. First released in 2014 by parent company, Byte Dance, following a merger with musical.ly, downloads of the app around the world exploded during the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic as a way to share news and relieve boredom while it felt like the world had shut down. People took the opportunity to share their life in lockdown and mental health professionals saw a rise in "doom-scrolling," or the mindless scrolling through social media to deal with things spiraling out of control. TikTok's infamous "For You Page," an algorithmically-generated scroll of new content predicted what the user would like based on content the user had already engaged with. While many people's "FYP" could be filled with dance trends, makeup or recipe tutorials or even funny pet videos, many others were seeing news about the rest of the world that media giants like Fox or NBC were not sharing. It was on TikTok that many saw first-hand accounts of life in other countries; more specifically, it was where Americans saw what it was like to live in places affected by war, like Ukraine or Gaza. There could be no misleading information when it was lived experience. What started as a fun video sharing app has since become, at least for many Americans, a place of social activism. In June 2020, the New York Times reported "TikTok was instrumental in the organization of a mass false-registration drive ahead of a Trump rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma, where many seats were unfilled," the article said. "It has amplified footage of police brutality as well as scenes and commentary from Black Lives Matter protests around the world… It has been suggested by many that TikTok teens will save the world." A recent Associated Press article reports that in March of last year, a bill saying TikTok must sell to an American buyer or face a ban in the U.S was passed in congress with former President Joe Biden signing the bill shortly after. Just a few days before Trump's second inauguration, TikTok was banned in the U.S. Less than 24 hours later, a message appeared on users' FYPs, thanking Trump for his efforts to save the app from a total ban. A Jan. 22 article from NBC reports that TikTok has not yet been handed to an American investor but there are many willing to put in an offer. But many Americans no longer trust the app after it came back so soon and with more paid advertisements than before. Because of this mistrust, Americans flocked to Xiaohongshu, or Rednote, a Chinese company, similar to TikTok, but geared, initially, towards highly-educated, young, Chinese women. Jennifer Hamilton, TikTok influencer, nurse and educator, said it well. "You don't want the Chinese to have our very sensitive personal data?" she said in a TikTok video posted just before the Jan. 20 ban, pretending to speak to the American government. "We will drop it off directly." "It has all played out like a global practical joke on the American government: threatened with exile from TikTok over concerns of Chinese interference, its users have simply scrolled to a different Chinese app," writes Amanda Hess, a culture writer for the New York Times, in a Jan. 16 article. These "TikTok refugees" as they are being called, myself among them, are finding the healing benefits of teas and herbs used in traditional Chinese medicine and are trying recipes not commonly found in americanized-Chinese restaurants. Many Americans are even taking the opportunity to learn the Mandarin language, to better communicate with their new found friends. For the price of trading pet photos, American digital refugees are being welcomed with open arms to learn more about Chinese culture and vice-versa. American Refugees and Chinese Rednote residents are dispelling propaganda and myths about the other. Where once the two cultures collided over misinformation, they are now working together to better understand the other. Within the first few hours that I had an account, a sweet Chinese "auntie," told American users to comment their first names and she would give them a Chinese equivalent. She told me my new name is "Shi-ge," meaning poetry. Two cultures taught to dislike each other instead finding unity, despite the best efforts of government officials. Poetic justice, indeed.