TikTok, the popular social media platform acquired in 2017 by the Chinese giant ByteDance, has recently ended up at the center of a controversy related to the ban imposed by the US authorities. The blocking of the application, initially supported by Donald Trump in 2020, quickly became a battle inherited by the Biden administration and was exacerbated in recent months by the law known as the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Applications Act.
On January 18, 2025, at 10:30 p.m. EST, US authorities began blocking TikTok. The specter of the ban – officially scheduled for January 19, on the eve of Donald Trump’s inauguration as the 47th President of the United States of America – had been looming for some time. It would be just the latest chapter in a long series of controversies related to the use of the platform, which for years has been at the center of questions regarding cybersecurity, the use of US users’ personal data, as well as the alleged dissemination of pro-Chinese propaganda.
The measure, which also affected other ByteDance applications, including CapCut, quickly turned out to be a false alarm. TikTok reopened to the US after just twelve hours, welcoming users with a thank-you message directly addressed to Donald Trump:
Welcome back! Thank you for your patience and support. Thanks to President Trump’s efforts, TikTok is back in the United States! You can continue to create, share, and discover all the things you love on TikTok.
The announcement was accompanied by a press release on X from CEO Shou Zi Chew:
In consultation with our providers, TikTok is in the process of restoring service. We thank President Trump for providing much-needed clarity and assurance to our providers that they will not be penalized for providing TikTok to over 170 million Americans and enabling over seven million small businesses to thrive. This is a strong stand for the First Amendment and against arbitrary censorship. We will work with President Trump on a long-term solution that keeps TikTok in the United States.
The CEO’s reference concerns the penalty of five thousand dollars foreseen for any user who managed to use the social network following the block, but above all it refers to the First Amendment, recalling the freedom of expression of over 170 million US users.
Even before January 19, many users had started moving to RedNote, a Chinese application founded in 2013 whose phonetic transcription from Mandarin – Xiaohongshu, “little red book” – directly recalls Mao Zedong.
It seems that using RedNote itself would not have been without risk, considering that the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Applications Act establishes that any other application “controlled by foreign adversaries” should be blocked. In fact, it would only be a change in one direction, considering that the alternative to Xiaohongshu, Lemon8 – a platform dedicated to the creation of more in-depth and accurate content through the use of photo galleries accompanied by text – is also managed by ByteDance.
TikTok, born as Musical.ly in 2016 and known in China as Douyin, is a platform based on sharing short vertical videos that allows users to express their creativity through different types of content. The social network has experienced exponential growth, quickly becoming one of the most downloaded and used applications in the world. By promoting participation and interaction, and allowing collaboration between different users through duets, remixes and video replies, TikTok has been able to produce viral content even from users that don’t have a large follower base, becoming a democratic platform capable of responding to the most diverse needs.
Easy to use, TikTok’s success is largely due to the effectiveness of its algorithm, which is able to suggest relevant and engaging content to each user. Unlike other social platforms, where interaction with close friends and family is paramount, the Chinese social network shifts its focus to content, giving visibility to videos that can align with users’ most varied interests, even if they come from unknown people. This model helps create a highly interactive experience as well as the continuous discovery of new content.
Initially, the content was mostly about dancing, lip-syncing and creating edits – video montages that enhanced pre-existing clips, often focused on a specific character. However, it was especially during the Covid19 pandemic that trend culture and collective participation reached unprecedented levels, allowing TikTok to make its way into different countries, overcoming cultural differences and language barriers.
Moreover, it’s not just about personalized content and micro-niches: TikTok has become an integral part of political propaganda in several countries over the past few years, amplifying its importance.
The political use of social media is closely linked to the effectiveness of the algorithm, in fact highlighting its risks: the high personalization of content risks limiting users’ exposure to divergent political ideas, fueling polarization and ideological dualism. These phenomena respond to the definitions of Filter Bubble – when the information a user has access to is filtered based on their preferences – and Echo Chamber – whereby a person’s thoughts and opinions are amplified by proximity to similar content.
Although risky, given the possibility that they might result in a passive political education for some users, these phenomena have favored the online growth of political parties. The German case is famous: during 2024, the far-right German party Alternative Für Deutschland used TikTok and a viral trend in which the chorus of the song by Italian DJ Gigi D’Agostino, Bla Bla Bla, released in 1999, is distorted into “AfD Deutschland braucht die AfD, nur die AfD”: “Germany needs the AfD, only the AfD”. The trend, which saw the participation of young women in particular, allowed the party to gain great visibility and become an increasingly attractive option for the under-25 electorate.
Donald Trump’s U-turn on the proposed 2020 ban of TikTok reveals his own opportunistic use of social media. In fact, in the days leading up to his inauguration, he expressed gratitude towards the TikTok community for supporting him and creating content that conveys the values of the Republican Party. The confrontation between The Donald and Kamala Harris during the election campaign itself was also largely played out on TikTok. Following the release of British singer Charlie XCX’s album BRAT and Joe Biden’s withdrawal from the race in the summer of 2024, X’s official page dedicated to Harris’ campaign was rebranded in the spirit of Brat Summer: the cover image, with the words “Kamala HQ” on an acid green background in a font similar to Helvetica, clearly references the album cover. Confirmation came directly from Charlie XCX herself with a tweet: “Kamala IS brat”.
The summer rebranding on X was part of a broader attempt to build an imaginary brat linked to the figure of Harris. The term is tied to a specific aesthetic: acidic, uninhibited, and strongly connected to the lightheartedness of Gen Z. It’s impossible to quantify the numerous TikTok edits dedicated to Harris, portrayed against a lime-green background with the song 365 in the background, while she utters one of her most famous phrases on social media: “You think you just fell out of a coconut tree?”, an expression used to indicate naivety and lack of awareness.
This last example outlines TikTok’s ability to offer attractive, provocative and charismatic content, as well as the possibility of idealizing the political personality of interest. The use of viral trends is replacing the classic slogans, while at the same time creating loyalty and recognition among followers, who have the opportunity to repost other users’ videos on their personal page.
On the other hand, Donald Trump’s controversial blocking of the platform and subsequent reversal, ostensibly to preserve the freedom of expression of American citizens, only accentuates the conflict between the immediate benefits of political communication on social media and the long-term implications for democracy and national security. The balance between freedom of expression and manipulation will be a crucial issue over the next four years, as institutions seek to regulate relations with the Chinese company.
L’articolo Tik Tok – A Political Platform proviene da ytali..
4uMagazine
