So I've been thinking will TikTok be permanently banned in the U.S.? Will President Trump bring it back?
Round and round we go. The news about TikTok can be as ephemeral as the content on TikTok itself.
So I’ve been reflecting on the deeper story beneath all the news about social media: the story of how we’ve lost our way and the story about how we can find our way home.
When you open TikTok, the first thing you see is the “For You” feed. In theory, it’s a feed personalized for your interests. It’s for you! But in practice, it’s designed to produce a stream of content that keeps you endlessly scrolling.
In a 2023 essay, the journalist Cory Doctorow defined this as the enshittification of social media. “Here is how platforms die,” he wrote. “First, they are good to their users; then they abuse their users to make things better for their business customers; finally, they abuse those business customers to claw back all the value for themselves. Then, they die.”
Like many social media platforms, TikTok tried to convince its users that it was for them. TikTok, according to Doctorow, “couldn’t resist the temptation to show you the things it wants you to see, rather than what you want to see.”
This has the hallmark deception of an abusive relationship: it starts with the lie of being all about you, but in truth, it’s really all about them.
The current ban of TikTok in the U.S. also reminds me of another inconvenient truth: All of it can be gone in an instant: our consistent contributions of our content to the platform, our slow building of trust with our audience, our faithfulness in showing up again and again. It can suddenly go dark, and there’s nothing we can do.
For creators who have built their brands, their businesses, and their relationships on a platform they don’t control, it can feel like a bitter breakup. It can feel utterly powerless.
This is the story of how we’ve lost our way. But there’s also a story of how we can reclaim control and find our way home.
This is a story I see playing out every day as content creators, everyday “users” (a term I hate, by the way), and authentic brands trade abuse for freedom, toxicity for optimism, and platform-dependency for digital self-determination. It’s a story of people reclaiming their power.
In the last few days, there have been plenty of articles and posts offering guidance about where TikTok creators should go next: Instagram? X? Snap? Bluesky? It’s all more of the same. They all commit the same trick: “For You” feeds on a platform that’s always been For Them.
The story of finding our way home is a story of us searching and finding a platform that is for us and by us—a true people’s platform.
Take your time, we’re here when you’re ready.
Here’s to rocking the world,
Zoe