So, let me get this straight. A pandemic spreads across the land and we’re all stuck inside for months. We run out of shows on Netflix. Then we turned to this app most of us had never heard of called TikTok. OK, cool. Now they want to ban it after we’ve all become addicted. Have you ever tried taking meth away from a meathead? No? Me neither, but I imagine it comes with a high risk of injury.
Maybe this is all some plot to get young people to vote. I can’t think of achieving that more efficiently with anything other than a ban of their favorite app. Seriously, I predict right now if TikTok gets banned every winner in the 2026 midterms will be under the age of thirty, all of whom will still be living with their parents.
But this misses the forest for the trees. The issue isn’t whether or not China is trying to fry the brains of young Americans. This comes down to an issue of labor and management. The corporations are management and the content creators are the labor. Yeah, it seems like you’re working for yourself when you’re running your own channel and have millions of followers. But that’s the trick they play. Give people the illusion of control while exploiting them.
There has been a push to form unions for content creators but this, like most plans to form unions, gets quickly snuffed out by the powerful. So the answer is the same as always. Bend over and take it.
Well, maybe not. Maybe our old friend Blockchain has the answer. You know, it’s not all cute dogs and cats. If there was a way to create a system for content creators to not only create but own the network they use to showcase their content, then we’d take away the power from the Chinese Communist Party and the United Corporations of America.
Chiverella is a nerdy fantasy book lover who somehow always ends up dating crypto guys and gamers. Now part of the CHIVE team, she’s here for the memes, the madness, and maybe even a husband—or a chance to get rich trying.