TikTok, Gen Z and the Splinternet

TikTok is the app of choice for many new creators: showing off dance moves, lip-sync battling friends and modelling the latest in fashion. Unlike other social media platforms, this algorithm-first app allows undiscovered creators to gain global viewers overnight. 

Each social media platform reflects a cross section of society: Twitter is driven by polarising power holders and pundits. Instagram is for style icons posting wall-to-wall glamour shots. Snapchat’s for page six celebrities and gossip. Facebook is the comment wall for cable news. Twitch and Discord are run by gamers. But TikTok is something else. 

“TikTok makes it easy to create videos, ensuring a massive supply of content. TikTok relies on the algorithm to surface compelling content, and is not constrained by your social network.” ─ Ben Thompson, Stratechery

In this remarkable year of 2020, posts on the For You Page aren’t just trending memes and viral dances, but that of activism and social justice. 

Where the youth hang out changes with every generation. 

The online youth scene has been rapidly changing in the last decade and the media landscape has evolved with it. Exploding onto the scene after it acquired Music.ly in 2018, TikTok has already surpassed Silicon Valley giants for US teens’ usage: 61% of teens have TikTok versus Twitter’s 34% and Facebook’s 41% (source). It also leads Twitter and Facebook as teens’ favourite social media platform.  

And in these pandemic months with stay-at-home measures in place, many have picked up their phones to seek digital connectedness. 

“TikTok is also the only social media platform helping to counter the growing polarization in the U.S. Facebook, Instagram and Twitter… TikTok offers a seemingly random way to discover new content prioritizing strangers, not contacts. That is why so many of our generation have flocked to the platform. It is also why TikTok is associated with activism and amusement, not anger and animus.” — 20 creators of TikTok in an open letter

And with its booming popularity, TikTok’s global footprint has become caught in the tangle of geopolitics. 

In the US, Trump told reporters on 31 July he intended to ban TikTok in the US and a week later, applying emergency powers and issued an Executive Order on Addressing the Threat Posed by TikTok. 

One Illinoian teen reacted to this news: “I don’t believe Trump is trying to take TikTok away because of national security but more to retaliate against activism on the app and all the videos about him that drag him through the mud.” Gen Z is credited with the poor turnout of Trump’s reelection kickoff in Tulsa.

“TikTok is to Black Lives Matter what Twitter was to the Arab Spring. I saw a lot of youth on the ground TikToking the protests as opposed to livestreaming, tweeting or Instagramming. The conversations these kids are having with each other are essential.” ?─ Kareem Rahma, 34, (reported on NYT). Content from #BLM protests in Minneapolis garnered millions of global viewers

Close to the administration, Kellyanne Conway, who has been advising Trump since the 2016 race, has been publicly feuding with her daughter Claudia Conway, 15, who is a critic of the Trump administration across TikTok, Twitter and Instagram. Kellyanne Conway resigned as Counselor late last month citing “less drama, more mama” for her family. 

The future of TikTok’s operation in the US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand are currently being negotiated between Microsoft-Walmart, Oracle and ByteDance executives. The Executive Order has been extended until 12 November.

TikTok also faces opposition in India where it was banned on 29 June, after topping download charts.

“In a country that contains such diverse, sprawling cultures and languages—as well as oppressive systems against those of different ethnicities, religions, castes, abilities, and social classes—TikTok achieved ubiquity, even transcending many of India’s societal divides,” reports Slate’s Nitish Pahwa. 

One New Delhi user said, “TikTok is one of the most accepting platforms when it comes to embracing different people. I’ve never seen a platform celebrate so many male belly dancers or male makeup artists or gay couples. Literally anyone.”

The ban occurred after Indian and Chinese military confronted each other at the disputed Galwan Valley, leaving 20+ dead - the biggest clash of these two nuclear powers in five decades. And all this in the backdrop of China executing its Belt and Road initiative.

While TikTok is the mecca for a new generation of social action, it isn’t without its flaws. Content moderators have been accused of blocking and shadow-banning Black Lives Matter creators in the US and abroad, content policies that suppressed LGBT, disabled and fat creators and suppressing Uyghurs. There are also the oft-covered privacy concerns. 

All tech platforms have found themselves in the crosshairs of geopolitics and TikTok is the latest chart-topping app to join the fray. 

At its launch, the world wide web provided a platform where any speech was possible. Now, governments are forced to grapple with these private companies’ roles in society. Tech companies that amass a society’s attention will continue to face forces propagating a splinternet, fragmenting a once unified platform. 

So while governments try to control the public square, one thing is inevitable: youth will establish their voice, define their narrative and challenge society’s norms in their way. For Western Millennials, it’s Hip Hop amplified by streaming, and years before that it was Gen X’s era of Sex, Drugs and Rock ‘n’ Roll whilst in China it was Winnie the Pooh. 

This generation of tech-savvy Zoomers will continue to adapt and find new havens to have these conversations. Gen Z will soon be at the polls voting. And in a few years, they’ll be leading our governments and businesses too.

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This post was written by Rob and edited by Vee - who both qualify for the Millennial age bracket. Shoutout to Judy and Susanna who both graciously offered to speak with the author and their Zoomer perspective during Uni exam time. 

Source 1 Chart: US Teen’s favorite Social Media Platform

Source 2 Chart: App Store Downloads of TikTok

Source 3 Twitter: @AOC 

Source 4 Chart: 2020 July Global Statshot Report

Learn more with Vox: youtu.be/BAsXGN2OX0c & Thomas Flight: youtu.be/Ii5kTNnyRRc