“TikTok is where their communities are, where they’ve built audiences, where conversations are happening that they care about,” Literati said.
Rather than a mass exodus, Literate expects TikTok’s fate to be “gradual erosion” or “death by a thousand cuts”, as users “potentially develop workarounds, shift to other platforms for political content while keeping TikTok for entertainment, or create coded languages and aesthetic strategies to avoid detection.”
CNN reported that a TikTok user had already learned she could finally post an anti-ICE video after claiming to be a “fashion influencer” and speaking in code throughout the video, criticizing ICE for detaining a 5-year-old boy named Liam Conejo Ramos.
“Influencing fashion is in my blood,” she said in the video, which featured “a photo of Liam behind her,” CNN reports. “And even a company with bad customer service won’t stop me from reviewing my fashion.”
Short-term, Literate believes that TikTok users who have long experienced inconsistent moderation will continue to test the limits, document issues, and criticize the app. That discussion will likely chill more speech on the platform, possibly even impacting the overall content mix that appears in the feed.
However, long-term, changes to TikTok under American owners could “fundamentally reshape TikTok’s role in political discourse.”
“Unfortunately, I wouldn’t be surprised if it meets the same fate as Twitter/X,” Literate said.
Lettrey told Ars that his TikTok research was initially motivated by a desire to monitor “the type of authentic political expression once enabled by the platform.” He worries that because user trust is now “damaged”, TikTok will never be the same.
“The tragedy is that TikTok was actually a space where young people—especially those from marginalized communities—could shape the political conversation in ways that felt authentic and powerful,” Literati said. “I’m sad to say, I think it’s been completely torn down.”
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