Over the previous a number of years, calls to limit or outright ban TikTok have change into more and more fashionable amongst politicians. Assaults on the Chinese language-owned app have primarily targeted on its alleged menace to nationwide safety, however politicians and activists have additionally sought to limit entry to the platform by arguing it endangers kids’s psychological well being.
Regardless of TikTok’s harshest critics coming from each side of the aisle, Republican states have been more likely to truly have interaction in direct motion towards the app. To this point, Montana has tried to ban the app utterly, whereas greater than 30 states—most of that are Republican-led—have banned the app on units owned by authorities staff.
Republicans are additionally extra more likely to assist penalties towards TikTok. In line with a latest Reuters survey, 58 % of Republicans assist banning the app, whereas solely 47 % of Democrats agree. And of the eight Republican presidential candidates who participated in Wednesday’s debate, at the very least six have voiced assist for a nationwide ban or have banned it considerably in their very own state.
That is why it might have come as a shock for a lot of viewers of this week’s GOP debate to see a number of adverts for the app enjoying throughout business breaks.
The adverts, which targeted on particular person customers, had been clearly tailor-made to pluck on Republican heartstrings. For instance, in a single advert, an aged Navy veteran talks about utilizing the app to crowdfund for a brand new mobility scooter. In one other, folksy banjo music performs over footage of the four-wheeler-riding proprietor of a soap-making small enterprise discussing how TikTok expanded her attain.
The adverts are half of a bigger marketing campaign referred to as TikTok Sparks Good, which incorporates adverts highlighting a variety of family-friendly accounts—from an Australian pottery artist to a instructor utilizing the platform to show toddlers tips on how to learn.
Whereas it is unclear whether or not the advert marketing campaign will assist rehabilitate the app’s picture amongst Republicans, it highlights a easy reality about social media that lots of its detractors ignore. With out social media, the quite a few small companies featured in TikTok Sparks Good adverts actually would not have been capable of develop their product’s attain to a world viewers. With out social media, a navy veteran would not have had adoring followers who jumped to purchase him—and now extra veterans—new mobility support.
Regardless of claims that social media apps are primarily a pressure for evil—supposedly drawing youngsters right into a spiral of despair and spreading nasty “misinformation”—they’ve clear upsides. Apps like TikTok can join individuals in ways in which would by no means have been doable with out social media.
