Supreme Court rules TikTok should be banned, but will it be?
The world’s most popular social media app may be removed from the US on January 19th but there may be other changes afoot
Welcome to The Breakdown by King Williams, a newsletter covering Atlanta's hidden connections to everything else. I am a documentary filmmaker, journalist, and podcast host based in Atlanta, Georgia.
Supreme Court upholds a ban on TikTok.
The Supreme Court has upheld a ban on TikTok, the popular social media app with ties to the Chinese government. TikTok will be removed from the app stores and become operable come Sunday unless the platform sells to an American company or individual*.
The Supreme Court ruling is a blow to the company. The company faces selling or shutting down unless Trump (with even more political power) decides to do something else.
Too Long/Didn’t Read(TL/DR): The TikTok/China ban.
For everyday people, TikTok is the fastest-growing social media platform. In the U.S., roughly half of the population has a TikTok account. TikTok is a popular platform within its parent company, ByteDance, a China-based internet, social media, and entertainment company.
In Short, the US government is forcing Chinese tech firm ByteDance to sell its ownership of the popular social media site TikTok, or it will be banned from operating in the country.
Medium: The ‘ban’ on TikTok is a forced sale, but it would be the US finally exercising a similar hard line on China, which has banned nearly all American social media and entertainment platforms.
The move to control the global internet has been ongoing for a long time. The future of the Internet is built on the digital infrastructure and platforms of either US-affiliated or Chinese-affiliated companies.
Long: Then-President Biden signed a bipartisan bill to re-establish US tech supremacy by banning TikTok. At the heart of the ban is whether TikTok is a global propaganda tool (aka a psyop), a non-combative military operation to change the public opinion of a country’s residents and socio-political leadership. A psyop aimed at undermining the US, its politics, and its citizens. This wouldn’t be the first time a foreign adversary has used some aspect of the internet to attack or undermine the US.
For China’s President Xi Jin Ping, the strong arm can’t bend now. While China doesn’t explicitly own TikTok, its looming influence doesn’t bode well if the US can force a sale.
The US is betting that China will either comply or fold, giving them a rare public ‘L’ on censorship and business compliance. China’s growth as a global superpower over the last 25 years has been as a direct competitor to the US, often with them setting the terms of business.
Should TikTok comply, it would be a win for Trump, US government agencies, and US-based companies that compete against TikTok and other Chinese firms. It also signals a shift that could give Trump and Republicans, as well as global conservatives/libertarians, a significant advantage for the foreseeable future.
The future of the internet: the American or Chinese version
TikTok was the first big success in challenging the cultural, economic, and technological hegemony that has been the globalization of the American internet. The US and its political allies now could face a world where the social media landscape is the first start in a more significant future where the de-centering of the US is happening.
It also sets up a future where China's highly monitored and curated walled garden versus the culturally conservative-aligned ethos of "open/free" access of US platforms- something that’s increasingly become equally closed off in recent years.
The US has minimal economic or cultural impact on the Chinese web, much to the charge of the federal government and both parties. This provides an example of better hedging against US interests as the two country’s advance.
What does TikTok’s ban mean for Democrats and Republicans?
For Republicans, the turnabout by Trump’s 2024 team in utilizing TikTok was one part of his successful win by pivoting towards the social media platforms and influencers of Gen Z. TikTok was crucial in identifying younger Trump supporters, their friends, and those Trump curious. TikTok was the intersection of Gen Z live streamers, podcast hosts, influencers, activists, gamers, religious supporters, celebrities, athletes, entertainers, and other content creators.
Republicans want to * own * the social internet, literally and ideologically.
For Republicans concerned about data mining, surveillance, and espionage, those concerns have been muted mainly by higher-ups and their outside supporters. After a rocky 2010s in attempting to ‘win’ the media and culture, the post-Obama era news and social media strategies were hit or miss until the post-George Floyd recalibration that began in the second half of 2020.
The attempts to flood the zone with culture wars, criticism, content creators, and political narratives have worked under Biden on every other platform; it hasn’t been on TikTok. Alongside a steady feed of misinformation/malinformation/disinformation from influencers, prominent accounts and Trump-supporting media have made the global internet pivot hard to right the pinnacle of decades of efforts.
For Democrats, TikTok's political content has been equally critical and hostile to both parties but more detrimental, as Republican supporters still vote for Republicans regardless. The 2024 electoral margins and shifts show that Democrats are more susceptible to swing voters and disaffected party members/voters.
The issue is still divisive amongst rank-and-file members. TikTok (alongside Twitter/X) is where AOC reigns as the top political member of ‘the left,’ left of liberals by a wide margin. AOC, alongside other members of ‘the squad,’ such as Rashida Talib and Ilhan Omar (plus her daughter), has been able to articulate a left perspective on politics and national events to more positive success.
Which has led to various left-leaning and outside D/R criticisms to amplify on the platform. TikTok has provided a voice on issues critical of liberals/liberalism * and * conservatism, a sharp contrast to the mainstream, which produces only content critical of Libs/Dems. See: Gaza.
What options are on the table?
There have been rumblings dating back to 2020 for some conservative-backed financing to take over the app. In 2020, a group backing former Trump Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin floated a bid to take over the app. Late last year, Shark Tank star and investor Kevin O’Leary floated a bid, and a recent rumbling of Twitter/X owner Elon Musk buying TikTok.
What if Elon Musk were to buy TikTok?
This claim was initially refuted, but now it may be an option. For Musk, owning TikTok would give him a global audience of 1.5 billion+. Most importantly, he would own the world’s largest real-time news aggregator on Twitter/X, accompanied by the world’s largest short-form video aggregator on TikTok. His coverage area would be in China, one of the most restrictive countries, where he already has business interests.
Elon has used Twitter/X’s algorithms to highlight right-wing content in addition to suppressing liberals/Democrats, eliminating fact-checking, and banning journalists and those critical of him and his companies. Elon’s use of Twitter has been a crucial vehicle for the narrative rebounding of conservatives since 2022 and on-boarding white nationalist content to a global audience. Ownership of TikTok and its much-in-demand algorithm could wield unparalleled levels of media and social narrative building.
Conclusion
Unless things change from the incoming Trump administration, which has signaled that the incoming Trump administration may' save' the app, his stance was reversed during his previous stint. Once he takes office, the logistics of how and when a ‘saving’ of TikTok has not been revealed.
However, considering that the president of TikTok will be at Trump’s inauguration, the situation is promising. But that could signal a more significant pivot of US social media platforms, search engines, corporations, and media pivoting to the hard right. If TikTok is ‘saved’, it’s highly probable that a Chinese company could do the same, giving Trump an enormous geo-political and cultural victory.
The TikTok ban is the first sign of Trump 2.0; it’s also a signal of the future of the US.
-KJW