Okay, Fine, I'll Become A YouTuber

On the forthcoming TikTok migration.

You win, American Government! I’ll post my abolitionist transfeminist STEM education culture critique content to an American platform, rather than the spooky scary Chinese platform! I’m sure this has everything to do with national security and nothing to do with rising left-leaning sentiment, Meta’s campaign to discredit TikTok, Meta’s generous donations to politicians on both sides of the aisle, anti-Asian racism, getting Americans to use a platform that’s better at surveillance and censorship, or hurting the U.S. economy to manufacture a crisis through which authoritarians can gain power. Nope, definitely all about national security, mhmm.

Much has happened since the last time I wrote about the TikTok ban, the most important thing being that it’s real this time. On January 19th, 2025, Bytedance apps (including TikTok, CapCut, and Pinterest competitor Lemon8) will no longer be accessible to Americans unless a) users have a VPN or b) Bytedance sells these platforms to an American company. Back in March 2023, I thought discussions of the ban were mere political theater to stoke anti-China sentiment, scare people into using Meta/Google products, and generally distract us from more important issues. But that was eons ago; since then, we’ve had an election, a lawsuit that’s been brought to the Supreme Court, and a fierce new wave of interest in the Free Palestine movement. This is all really important to me as a TikTok creator with more than 90,000 followers, by far the largest audience I’ve ever had.

Today I’d like to ask, and attempt to answer, what happens next? Will the ban actually go through as it exists right now? Or will the Court (or someone else) stop it? What will happen to the millions of Americans who financially rely on TikTok? And most importantly, will I actually become a YouTuber? (hint: yes)