@atomicpoet I think the part that strikes me as being tremendously tricky in regards to TikTok is the fact that on the one hand, yes... TikTok is a surveillance app.

But on the other, whether we like it or not, TikTok is also viewed as a creative outlet and a source of community for many of the users who are posting videos there. It's easy to dismiss it all as banality and commercialism, because indeed most that floats to the top of it is.... There are plenty of thriving communities of people who aren't chasing trends, just talking about their lives same as we are on the Fediverse, they're just using video and TikTok was the most easeful platform to do so on. Hell, one of my oldest Internet friends met her wife on TikTok through finding a thriving community of over 40 lesbians on there.

My fear is that what will get lost in the shuffle is the fact that while we're busy crusading surveillance capitalism, we're also alienating groups of people who are going to perceive these efforts as curtailing their right to freedom of speech, especially if alternatives are not available.

And given that the Republicans are leading the charge on that effort at the moment.... it's VERY likely it will be perceived among the populous that way.