Dear President Trump: An Open Letter From The TikTok Creator Community

Gen-Z spent our childhoods on the internet. But the internet that we encountered as teenagers was a very different internet than the one we grew up with. Net neutrality and freedom of information were sacrificed in favor of corporate monopoly. Facebook and Google have taken the place of hundreds of companies and narrowed the world’s definition of what the internet could be.

TikTok is not based on open access or freedom of information: there are serious concerns over how the app collects its data that merit an American response. But ironically, it is the first company to challenge the companies that have put an end to the open internet. TikTok has enabled the kinds of interactions that could never take place on the likes of Facebook and Instagram.

We do not expect our parents’ generation to understand how it has done so. We expect them to think that we are naive creators desperate to keep our followings. But we wanted to explain why we think that Donald Trump should think again about his decision to eliminate TikTok from America’s shores.

The prevailing mainstream social media networks — Facebook, Instagram and Twitter — are oriented around people you already know. Content on your feed is either shared directly by your friends or content that you have expressed an interest in previously. TikTok is different: the content you consume can come from anyone. This gives creators a voice in a way that friend oriented social networks can’t. It does not matter whether you have a reputation as a creator or if you know people who do. Small-town shop owners in India have the same opportunity to make a living from their talents as A-list celebrities.

Tiktok is also the only social media platform helping to counter the growing polarization in the U.S. Facebook, Instagram and Twitter offer a personalized news feed oriented around people you interact with on a daily basis. This can create an environment where users are only exposed to people who share their ideas. 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.

Finally, yes, we are currently living through lockdown. And a virtual world dominated by hate on Twitter is nothing compared to the snapshots of joy and comedy on TikTok.

So instead of eliminating TikTok, why not use this opportunity to spin off TikTok US in an IPO or sell it to a US company — let capitalism solve this issue, not the state. Foreign social media apps are banned in China, but not due to national security concerns. They are banned in order to enforce censorship, and that is no precedent for any free society.

Any new US-based TikTok rival would only be monopolized by those with platforms on other apps, making it more difficult for members of the global public to be involved as creators, rather than audience members. (Facebook is already working on one such rival. This move would be a boon to Mark Zuckerberg.)

Our generation has grown up on the internet, but our vision of the internet is going to require more than two gatekeepers. Why not use this as an opportunity to level the playing field? Remove the app from the CCP’s control while allowing it to remain a bastion of community in a world where we find ourselves so isolated.