Here's Why I’m Freaking Out Over The Possible TikTok Ban!

If you’re an avid TikTok scroller like me, you must know what’s going on right now with the threat of losing our beloved app. So many emotions, so little time...

TikTok CEO Shou Chew has been grilled by Congress about the app this week in an effort to ban it in the United States. If you’ve caught any of the trial, which I’ve honestly only seen on TikTok and nowhere else, you’re probably just as annoyed as I am with the insanity that’s ensuing. 

I know that everyone has their own reasons for being annoyed over the possibility that our government is going to take the app away. I have a few reasons of my own.

First, I love to scroll on TikTok at the end of a long day so I can just relax and turn my brain off for a bit. Second, I get a good portion of my stories for The Blast from TikTok. I’ve consistently written about Mama Tot, Nudacris the Sphynx, the Corn Kid, Dylan Mulvaney, Jonathan Graziano (Noodle the pug’s owner), Howie the crab and many others. Losing TikTok means I could potentially lose stories, and stories of people and animals I’ve been writing about for so long.

And third, and here’s where my horror story comes in, I lose yet another social media account that has seen me through some tough moments. 

During the summer of 2021, I faced what I considered to be a series of very unfortunate events. I woke up one morning, grabbed my phone, clicked on the Facebook icon and that’s when it all went downhill. Instead of seeing my Facebook newsfeed, I saw a huge message that took up the whole phone screen that said my page has been suspended. No explanation as to why, but if I disagreed with their decision, I could appeal it.

I followed the directions to appeal, filling in the information requested, uploaded a photo of my driver's license to prove I am who I say I am and then got a message that my case is pending review. Within a few minutes, I got an email from Facebook saying they are keeping their decision and my account is being deleted. 

I quickly swiped over to the Instagram icon and another hit - they also took my Instagram page down. Any page that was associated with my Facebook page was gone. This means my son, who was a child actor, also lost his pages on Facebook and Instagram that I created for his fans to be able to keep up with all the fun projects he was doing. Some of these photos and videos weren't saved anywhere else. I know, I know...my own stupidity. But nevertheless, they are memories lost forever now.

Come to find out, my Facebook page was hacked and while I was asleep that night, they changed my profile photo and cover photo. My oldest son’s girlfriend happened to be awake and online at that time and saw it happen. She took a screenshot of it for me, so things started to at least make some sense as to why Facebook locked me out. But even though I had that proof, and I proved my identity with my driver's license, there was no way to get to a human to explain the situation and beg for my accounts back. I tried for weeks. I tried everything I possibly could think of to get to a live person so they can hopefully help me get my pages back. It never happened. 

So why was I so distraught over this? My account had been active for about 10 years at this point. I had all my children’s photos, memories filled with funny things they said or did, messages saved from dead friends and relatives, and no chance to retrieve any of that. I always thought that my photos were safe there. Some of them weren’t backed up anywhere else, except for Instagram, which was also stolen from me. Lesson learned - don’t trust the internet and back everything up.

To top everything off, my best friend from high school died a few days before my Facebook page was hacked and closed and I had no way of getting in touch with her family to see how they were doing while all this was going on. It was a harsh smack in the face that social media is not safe…at all.

So why am I upset about the possibility of losing TikTok? Well, it isn’t because of the same reasons I was so devastated about losing Facebook and Instagram. It’s more about having yet another line of communication taken from me. TikTok has become like a community of like-minded people for me. I go there for information, to laugh, to learn, and to just escape the harsh world of adulting at times. I love writing about TikTokers. I love putting these amazing content creators in the news for something good that they are doing. 

If you’ve seen any clips from the trial, I’m sure you’ll know what I’m saying when I say, it’s been insane! So many unreal moments have happened. It feels like the decision was already made, even before TikTok CEO Shou Chew uttered a single word. 

Missed it all? Don't worry...fellow TikTokers have your back. A quick search on the app will find you going down a rabbit hole of information, opinions and emotions. Many, and I mean many, have shared clips from the trial along with their thoughts on the app.

Even Chew himself shared some information on what's going on.

While we don't yet know what the future holds for TikTok, I for one really hope that some miracle happens and we don't lose the app. I want to be able to keep bringing you stories about people and animals who are doing great things that can help your day go by just a little smoother.