The House on Saturday voted to ban TikTok — and even some Americans who make bank on the Chinese-owned app believe its end cant come soon enough, saying it’s become a cesspool of hate and misinformation.
Comedian and actor Zach Sage Fox, who earns his living in part by posting clips of his standup to over 1.1 million followers on TikTok, was sweating what the ban on the app could mean for his income in the hours after the Congressional vote to block the platform in the US or force its sale.
But as the company has faced accusations of promoting Hamas propaganda and turning younger Americans toward Islamic extremism following the Oct. 7 attacks on Israel, the social media influencer recognized the dangers of the massively popular video sharing platform poses.
I am terrified of what I am seeing on TikTok, Fox told The Post.
In the last few months, in regard to the Israel-Palestine conflict, for all the biggest sources of misinformation, TikTok is just a gold mine, he said.
It seems like there is something happening in the algorithm that is very much trying to soil the West.
The bill, which would force the app owner, ByteDance, to divest within nine months, passed overwhelmingly, 360 to 58.
In March the House passed a similar TikTok bill, which moved through the chamber in a broad bipartisan majority. That effort, however, has been stalled in the Democratic Senate, where Majority Leader Chuck Schumer has so far refused to bring the measure to a vote.
Since it is part of the greater foreign aid package to Ukraine and Israel, the Senate will be forced to deal with the issue.
TikTok is used by an estimated 170 million Americans and has become absolutely omnipresent with teens and Gen Z — with a staggering 76% of Zoomers saying they use the app.
Nearly two-thirds of them admit to using it daily, according to a 2023 YPulse report.
The app has asserted an all-encompassing source of information young Americans, who can find anything on wellness, fashion, food, politics, relatable story times, and everything else under the sun, the report noted.
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In recent years, however, TikTok has made headlines over the misinformation run rampant on the app, including youths praising Osama Bin Laden after reading his Sept. 11 letter to America.
I think, glass half full, millions of young people are cut off from information that is funneled from China and will turn to sources that, while not perfect, will have at least some oversight on a factual level, Fox said.
Experts said even if TikTok fails to find a buyer and get blocked from the United States, a new app is guaranteed to take its place.
“There’s always something to fill the void, or one of the mega-companies like Meta to reverse engineer or recreate the experience that people are already enjoying,” said Karen North, a professor of social media at the University of Southern California.
“If it disappears, something will emerge from those ashes,” she said. “we just don’t know which Phoenix it will be.”