Lori Falce: TikTok, hypocrisy and easy answers

Lori Falce, Tribune-Review, Greensburg, Pa.
·3 min read

Mar. 15—If you go on TikTok today, you are going to see a lot of the same things that pop up every day.

The "For You" page is a tab on the app where the things that interest you are funneled. The app's algorithm notices that you engage with cooking demos or politics or skits about retail in which one person plays all of the characters in different wigs. (Full disclosure: Yes, this is a snapshot of my For You page.)

But, after Wednesday's vote to ban TikTok if it stays in the hands of the Chinese company ByteDance, there is a lot of content focused on that topic.

Specifically, there is more than a little backlash against U.S. Rep. Jeff Jackson, D-N.C., who voted in favor of the ban.

You might not know Jackson unless you are a North Carolinian or an avid TikTok user. He is a lawyer, veteran and first-term Congressman who won't be around for a second term after being redistricted out of his seat. He is, however, running for North Carolina attorney general, becoming his party's nominee after the recent primary.

Jackson's soft-spoken, very descriptive accounts of what happens in the Capitol have made him extremely popular on TikTok. He's racked up 2.5 million followers and almost 36 million likes.

But, in the fast-paced "what have you done for me lately?" world of social media, he is being hit hard by everyone from teenagers to media influencers for what is being touted as hypocrisy.

Meanwhile, his opponent is a colleague: U.S. Rep. Dan Bishop, R-N.C. Although the GOP has been largely opposed to TikTok, he voted against the ban. Not a TikTok user, Bishop said he stuck with the 170 million Americans who do.

Perhaps he was influenced by former president and 2024 Republican candidate Donald Trump, who said this week he believes TikTok shouldn't be banned. Trump's turnaround came after Pennsylvania's richest man, billionaire Jeff Yass, became the top GOP donor for this election cycle.

Yass also is a major investor in ByteDance. Forbes magazine attributes the lion's share of his $28 billion net worth to his less than 10% slice of the TikTok pie.

Does this mean TikTok is evil? Does it mean Democrats are hypocrites or Republicans are nefarious? Does it mean China isn't using an app to ensnare me into watching a British woman make different kinds of potatoes every day?

No. (OK, maybe the potato thing.)

It means we need to stop looking for easy answers that fit what we want to think.

It is possible to enjoy TikTok and have questions about it at the same time. It is possible to personally use something for your work — like educating voters or advertising a campaign — and still recognize problems. It also is possible to dislike the company or its Chinese ties while having reservations about passing a law targeted at one company.

Congress needs to address its failings in regulating social media and the digital business landscape as a whole. Americans need to stop believing they get all the information they need in a one-sentence social media post or a 30-second video fed to them by a computer program targeting their likes.

But what do I know? I'm just over here watching someone make a viral pasta recipe on my For You page.

Lori Falce is the Tribune-Review community engagement editor and an opinion columnist. For more than 30 years, she has covered Pennsylvania politics, Penn State, crime and communities. She joined the Trib in 2018. She can be reached at lfalce@triblive.com.