Updated March 28 at 4:39 p.m.
Wasn’t it just yesterday that tick tock was simply a reference to time? As in the ticking sound an analog watch makes while the seconds and minutes pass. Or as shorthand for "hurry up." Like when my college dean was unmoved by my — I thought — heartfelt pleas for a pass/fail grade for one of my classes. Dean Maude Chaplin said no to my theatrics and then added for emphasis, “Tick tock. You need to get to the library.” I did, in case you were wondering. In the various broadcast newsrooms where I have worked, tick tock was shorthand for the timeline of an event. Somebody was always yelling ‘’Where’s the tick tock on the hearings?”
The old-fashioned analog clock may be ticking down for the digital phenomenon TikTok, a short video hosting service owned by the Chinese company ByteDance. It’s taken the world by storm, a favorite app for about 20% of the world’s internet users. At 1 billion — with a “b” — active users spread across 154 countries, TikTok’s siren song of dance challenges, how-to demonstrations, cooking tutorials, and more is an ever-changing landscape. Some months ago, I explained how the platform’s proprietary design precisely customizes content based on each user’s prior viewing habits.
Americans love their TikTok, but a recent Quinnipiac University Poll revealed 49% favored a ban. Quinnipiac’s polling analyst Dr. Tim Malloy concluded most Americans “would like to click delete and send TikTok to the dustbin of social media history.” Perhaps, but as the results showed, the largest group of TikTok users — the 18- to 34-year-olds — don't want the ban.
But the drumbeat for shutting down the app gained momentum after the White House issued an order to all federal agencies to delete it from government devices. Canada followed suit with its own TikTok ban, as did New Zealand and Britain. And now the Biden administration has upped the ante threatening an outright ban of TikTok if the Chinese-owned company isn’t sold. Last week TikTok’s top executive Shou Zi Chew endured a bipartisan verbal pummeling from an openly skeptical, sometimes hostile, congressional committee warning of the danger of the app’s influence on young people and its ability to collect Americans’ personal information. During his five hours of testimony, Chew insisted TikTok operated independently from the Chinese government. He emphasized the plan for a Texas-based firewall to protect American data. Minnesota Democrat Angie Craig bluntly told Chew, “Project Texas just doesn’t pass the smell test.”
I’m fascinated by the too-late handwringing about TikTok — at this point equivalent to closing the barn door after the horses have escaped. Unless there is some solid evidence that TikTok is indeed a political and military threat, all of this Sturm und Drang has no actual point. And I’ll note that Shou Chew recently revealed he doesn’t allow his children to use the app. He points out that TikTok does not allow kids younger than 13 to use TikTok, except in America. I’d be surprised if his children hadn’t already figured out a way around that because few can resist the pull of TikTok’s can’t-stop-scrolling content. I expect it will take more than a ban to erase TikTok.
This article was updated to correct a typo.
