UnderDog Report #68
Will They Save TikTok? In Defense of TikTok
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The UnderDogReport Says:
Today, TikTok, the popular video-sharing app owned by China’s ByteDance, is facing complete U.S. shutdown. TikTok is a short-form video hosting service owned by Chinese internet company ByteDance. It hosts user-submitted videos, which can range from three seconds to 10 minutes, and is accessed via a smart phone app.
In April 2024, the U.S. House of Representatives dropped a BOMB by passing legislation to cancel the world’s most popular social network, TikTok. TikTok has about 170 Million American users (roughly 17% of all users) and worldwide has surpassed over one Billion users. The bill was signed into law by President Biden with an effective date…wait for it…the day before Donald Trump’s inauguration (sounds fishy to me). It now is in the hands of the Supreme Court who may decide its fate today.
How many ads have you seen on Instagram and Facebook, way too many. In addition, many other platforms allow the very annoying clickbait. posts, like this example for a slightly engaged one
• We guarantee everyone will get $500. Yes it’s very easy all you have to do is…
• You have to go to the Profile and click on the link there
• The link takes you to an article up to 50 pages long with ads between every paragraph
• By the time you get to the end of the story, you find out it’s bogus
TikTok does not encourage this type of clickbait, which is why more and more people are using it and why the other big platforms want it banned. TikTok’s “in-ap” editor is lightyears ahead other platforms, which is whey much of the content on other sites are first created on TikTok. Ads in TikTok are at a minimum and they tend to be targeted to your interests.
People say TikTok revitalized the book and film industries not by advertising, but by encouraging engagement. For example, The hashtag #BookTok has amassed over 181.7 billion views as of September 2023, it:
• Helped in selling around 20 million books in 2021, which is nearly half of the book purchases from social media in 2021.
• Has enough power to influence overall book sales numbers while helping some authors come out of obscurity and make them best-selling writers.
• Increased titles published in 2018 by 812% from June 2019 to June 2022.
• The average American user of TikTok is reading 60% more books compared to the period prior to exposure to BookTok.
TikTok announced plans to completely shut down its U.S. operations on January 19th if the Supreme Court does not block the law. They do not plan to sell the platform.
ECONOMIC GROWTH
TikTok reported it drove significant economic growth for more than seven million businesses in the U.S. economy by helping to support more than $24 billion in gross domestic product (GDP), and more than 224,000 American jobs, delivering a competitive edge to small businesses across the nation.
In terms of global Internet traffic, it is becoming more accessed than Google, including Google Maps and Gmail. By the end of 2021, the company’s data showed TikTok was the #1 most popular domain, followed by Google.com, Facebook.com, Microsoft.com and Apple.com. It was downloaded 693 million times in 2019, and 850 million times in 2020, and was downloaded more than two billion times by 2020, the last time data was available.
The average time a user spends is also higher for TikTok compared to YouTube, indicating high levels of engagement.
Here are some interesting facts about TikTok from Pew Research:
1. A third of U.S. adults – including a majority of adults under 30 – use TikTok
2. A majority of U.S. teens use TikTok
3. 43% of U.S. TikTok users say they regularly get news there.
USER ENGAGEMENT AND CONTENT TRENDS
TikTok drives user engagement with its “For You Page” (FYP) algorithm with personalized user preferences, keeping them engaged, and adapts to emerging trends and viral challenges. These features cultivate a sense of community amongst its users.
TikTok attracts a younger, trend-focused demographic, while Facebook and Instagram cater to a broader audience. Businesses and marketers increasingly recognize the platform’s potential for digital marketing to engage with users effectively.
One reason TikTok is so successful its small businesses and individuals have greater success compared to others. The minimum average cost of a sponsored post with 1 million views on: YouTube is $2,500, Instagram is $1,200, and Tik Tok $1,034. TikTok is the less expensive and it also get the best results. Small Social Media users often point out that their posts do significantly better on TikTok compared to other platforms.
TikTok moderates content keeping it positive and encouraging, in comparison to other platforms. It is a force to be reckoned with. If you think Facebook, Instagram, Google, and others have not taken notice, you are mistaken. Many believe these companies may be behind the push to get this app cancelled and benefit in the process.
THE GOVERNMENT GETS INVOLVED
In May of 2023, a former employee filed a wrongful termination suit claiming ByteDance had “supreme access” to all data held, including servers in the United States. ByteDance denied this, but there is still concern in the eyes of both US Political parties. Whenever the Congress has bipartisan support on anything, like this bill did, it should cause concern. Was this the Uni-party in action?
Many say this law is about protecting American citizens’ privacy, but many conversely believe TikTok’s competitors are pushing to get it banned, so they could profit even more. Some believe the U.S. Government, under Democratic control, is seeking more control of social networks and TikTok sometimes may be providing an alternative point of view not in line with the narratives they already influence.
President Donald Trump said banning TikTok would benefit Facebook, and “…I consider Facebook to be an enemy of the American people.” He criticized Facebook parent company Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s donations during the 2020 election to nonprofits to help local election offices improve their technology, educate voters, train poll workers, and get out the vote for Democratic candidates. Not only that, but Zuckerberg has admitted that he greatly promoted Biden and suppressed content for Trump during the 2020 election.
If lawmakers ban TikTok, the only platforms left will be those that are:
1) Worse at helping small creators find an audience and
2) More likely to play ball with organizations involved with Censorship.
WHY IS TIKTOK TO SUCCESSFUL?
One reason TikTok is so popular is Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube do not cater to the small businesses and individuals. With the big bucks coming from large companies, they have found it profitable to promote these users, thereby downplaying small users. Just ask any small user trying to gain progress on these sites. It appears TikTok far exceeds the payback smaller users receive, while they get ‘lost’ on the other networks. An interesting differentiator of this platform is anyone can have their post go viral; it is not dependent on how many followers you have. This is a unique difference from other social platforms. In other words, you don’t have to spend years building your followers before one of your posts can go viral, a very attractive feature for small users.
In addition, Google; Instagram and Facebook have been shadow-banning and outright banning thousands of conservative users, including the Gateway Pundit and JoeHoft.com and many others, including President Trump when he was in office and during the 2020 election.
David Rand wrote:
“Removing a platform that at times challenges the accepted narrative would give even more power to that group of government actors (and their private counterparts) to decide what content gets promoted — and what content gets buried….”
In other words, keeping TikTok would help preserve free speech and not place it firmly into the hands of those who have already proved they can and will suppress it.
BIG BROTHER (AND CHINA) IS WATCHING YOU
People say TikTok is ‘watching’ and collecting data from its users and providing it to the Chinese Government. They deny this, but we already know that Google, Facebook, Instagram, and others have and continue to collect user data. Some say they willingly share the data they collect from their users with the US Government. It appears that everyone is watching us.
The Biden administration was putting citizens in prison for posting information unfavorable to those in charge, including satire, a form of speech protected by the First Amendment. Douglass Mackey posted a Hillary Clinton meme ahead of the 2016 election, and was sentenced to seven months in prison. , This is opposite of freedom of speech.
The US government has been buying your data to spy on you and your tax dollars are going to the data brokers. By purchasing this data, Sara Morrison of Vox reports, this allows Government agencies to bypass the need for a warrant to spy on US Citizens.
A MORAL DECISION?
Is TikTok a good influence on our culture? Is it a force for good? The more important question is, “Is the content on TikTok more reprehensible and damming to our culture than other Social Networks?” They answer is simple, it is not. That brings us to a more important question, are any social networks a good influence on our culture?
Although Christians are gaining more traction and more users on TikTok, they still represent a small percentage. As far as we can tell, the number one Christian content provider has almost 13 million follows, while the number one content provider on the platform, has over 160 million followers.
It is encouraging, at this point, to see that Christian content on TikTok is not shadow banned, which it appears to be so on other platforms. We as Christians should take every opportunity to speak about Jesus Christ and use every tool and avenue available to us. Remember, the ONLY time Christians’ said they would not obey the government in the New Testament was in regards to speaking about Jesus Christ (See this UnderDog Report on this topic). So let’s speak about Jesus on TikTok.
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The Underdog Report produces content on current events from a Biblical perspective to provide a positive Godly point of view as an alternative to today’s Media, and to encourage people to be followers of Christ.
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Gary Scarano is the author of the book “The Jesus Gospel” (JesusGospel.com). Not since the New Testament of the Bible was written, has anyone combined the 4-Gospels ‘Word-For-Word’ into a continuous chronological timeline. Read the 4-Gospels, the record of Jesus Christ’s life, blended into a single COMPLETE story.
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