Let’s execute TikTok in the town square!

Can I yap for a moment? Pleaseeee?

It’s so odd that I support axing TikTok considering my career benefits from its survival. I am so bought into the short-form space and am passionate about using entertainment as advertising. It’s fun! But, hey, there comes a time in everyone’s life when a guy’s gotta let his values take precedence over his career.

A TikTok ban is not just political theater. A lot of arguments in favor of a ban point to national security, but what I find most concerning is TikTok’s effect on societal health and cultural preservation. So many of us are willfully ignore the mounting evidence of the platform's capacity for harm. Spooky.

Consider the precedent set by Cambridge Analytica. A chilling example of how user data can be weaponized to influence elections, sway public opinion, and undermine democratic institutions. What TikTok is being accused of is not anything new. WE’VE BEEN HERE BEFORE and we’d be so stupid to not learn from it.

Amplify the case of Cambridge Analytica by the scale and precision of TikTok’s algorithm, coupled with its ownership by a geopolitical adversary. This is not alarmism. It is our reality.

Let’s be clear about the very invasive data points social media platforms like TikTok collect. It’s not just your browsing habits or location history. TikTok tracks biometric data. Your face, your voice, your keystroke rhythms. It logs your device settings, network connections, and even how long you pause on a video. It knows your sleep schedule, your diet, your values. It can even predict what your childhood must have been like, how happy or sad you are, your sexuality, your desires, your fears. It’s fair to say it knows more about you than you know about yourself.

This collection of data constructs a disturbingly precise portrait of who you are, what you believe, and how you can be influenced. And although it doesn’t say much because I despise the guy, I would categorically trust even one of the most unscrupulous US-based CEOs (Elon Musk) with that data over a foreign governmental entity like the CCP.

You are naive, either willfully or ignorantly, if you think TikTok isn’t engineered to exploit its users. It’s designed to grab you, keep you addicted, and manipulate your perception of reality. Again, this is nothing new. The concept is not some crazy, far-fetched, nut-case delusion.

The “hypodermic needle theory” of mass communication, proposed nearly a century ago, shows how media can inject ideas directly into the public psyche. Now imagine that theory supercharged by algorithms, AI, and the vast datasets of over a billion users. Today, the stakes are higher, the tactics are more sophisticated, and the consequences are far more devastating. The hypodermic needle theory thrives now more than ever.

I think what keeps people from believing such a thing could be a threat to us is the notion that we Americans are special. That we are smarter, wealthier, and more in-tune than the rest of the world, so “it could never happen to us.” History teaches us time and time again that this ideology, though natural, is fatal. What you must understand is that Americans are not special. At all. We are not immune. We are just as susceptible to propaganda-fueled brainwashing as the citizens of North Korea, Russia, or China are.

We do not exist in some impenetrable haven where such tactics magically fail to work on its inhabitants.

The argument for "free speech" as a shield against banning TikTok only reveals a fundamental misunderstanding of the platform. Your FYP isn’t some democratic space where content bubbles up organically. Every video you see is placed there by an algorithm, one designed not to inform but to addict. TikTok doesn’t represent free speech, it represents curated manipulation. Donald Trump often declares that TikTok is what won him the election. Hello???? The writing is on the wall.

And then there’s the argument for “access to education.” But, the science of short-form media addiction guarantees a society that is dumber, more distracted, and more docile. If TikTok truly prioritized education, it wouldn’t selectively suppress content or allow the rampant spread of misinformation, particularly in the era of AI-generated video.

You don’t champion free speech or education. You either are protecting your business, prioritizing profit over the greater good, or are subconsciously defending an addiction that you don’t even recognize as such.

We have become numb to the harm TikTok perpetuates because we’ve been conditioned to value convenience over critical thought. We scroll, we consume, we disengage. And yet, deep down, we all know that the world was better before TikTok. Not perfect, but better. More together. More active. Happier. Social media promised connection, but TikTok delivers isolation disguised as engagement. It is not the solution to our problems. It is one of their root causes.

A ban will be messy, fraught with withdrawals and economic disruption. But true progress is rarely neat or convenient. In the end, a ban on TikTok would do more to preserve what’s left of a wise, connected, and human society than any half-hearted attempts at regulation. If you can’t see the irony of mourning free speech while using your “platform” to post GRWMs that barely break 400 views, then perhaps this ban is precisely what you need.

We don’t need TikTok. It needs us. It needs our attention, our data, and our compliance to survive. A reality where people have no other options to entertain themselves than with cinema or literature or fine art sounds like dystopia to a lot of you, and that is not normal. If you need so desperately to be entertained, go crack open a fucking book. <3

With love and concern and nothing to gain or lose,

-Evan xx