
2025 has truly marked itself as the year of the snake after the switch up on a certain TikTok “ban.”
In the dark ages, or July 2020, President Donald Trump first suggested a TikTok ban after claiming China, where the app’s parent company is headquartered, “mishandled” COVID-19. Nothing happened, but concerns about national security and data safety arose within the government.
Fast-forward a few years to March 2023 when Congress held a hearing with TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew. This hearing was ultimately a smokescreen and ended up being the most embarrassing show of American intelligence probably ever.
A year later, the House and Senate passed a bill initiating the fall of TikTok, and President Joe Biden signed it. The government was sued, but it didn’t matter. On Jan. 17, 2025, the Supreme Court upheld the law, and on Jan. 18 TikTok went down.
Mass hysteria ensued over the weekend and thousands of users flocked to Rednote, a different Chinese social media app directly controlled by not only another Chinese company but also Chinese Communist Party regulations. If data was a concern with TikTok, then it’d be a far bigger one with Rednote.
The fact of the matter is, though, none of the aforementioned hoopla ever was a concern. It was always about control.
Fortunately, President Trump will work on a solution … have we already forgotten who started this? He followed through with TikTok returning in about 14 hours. All thanks to President Trump’s “efforts.”
Don’t you see it?
All hail the savior of the youngest voting demographic’s asinine addiction, thank you for saving us from potentially doing something with our time. Now we can scroll endlessly through the trough of hand-picked content until our worldviews perfectly align against all those minorities who must be ruining our lives.
Where have I heard this before?
Having American conglomerates like Meta and X under right-wing influence wasn’t enough, why not have the same influence over outsiders, hell, go ahead and invite them all to the inauguration. Actually, let’s just make the outsider an insider, and enter Microsoft acquisition.
Alas, no matter how ridiculous this all sounds, we are in the perfect position as a society for something like this to be happening.
For years, certain political personalities have been confused, thinking the First Amendment applies to hate speech, slowly desensitizing us to what censorship actually is. So now, when censorship happens right in front of our eyes, there are real living human beings who cannot recognize it.
We the people are being manipulated, and social media is at the forefront of it.
Maybe this is too extra, or maybe the outrage isn’t enough. Regardless, remember to read between the lines. Never take information at face value. Find sources. Do the right thing; these putrefied companies sure won’t.
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