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Over the past week, videos from users across the United States have started appearing on TikTok.
They all derided the same thing: how the enforcement relationship with China made it a national security threat. Many have said that their TikTok accounts have been delegated by the Chinese government to spy on them through the app – and that users will feel sorry for the private spy.
“May we meet again in another life,” one user wrote in a farewell video of Whitney Houston’s cover of Dolly Parton’s “I Will Always Love You.” The video featured an AI-generated image of a Chinese military officer.
It’s just one way some of TikTok’s 170 million US monthly users are reacting to the videos as the app prepares to disappear from the country as early as Sunday.
The Supreme Court ruled on a federal law requiring Chinese TikTok owner ByteDance to sell the app by January 19 or face a US ban. US officials say China can use TikTok to collect personal data of Americans and spread secret defamation. TikTok, which has said the sale is illegal and is against the law, is now awaiting the Supreme Court’s decision.
The judge’s ability to uphold the law has caused grief and dark humor throughout the practice. Some users have posted videos suggesting ways to get around the ban with technological solutions. Others took another Chinese app, Xiaohongshu, also known as “Red Note,” to join its nose in the US government’s concerns about TikTok’s ties to China.
The videos highlight the online conflict between the law, which was passed by Congress last year with overwhelming support, and everyday users of TikTok, who are frustrated that it may disappear. the application is long.
“Most of my TikTok feed now is TikTokers mocking the US government, TikTokers thanking Chinese hackers as a form of mockery,” said Anupam Chander, a law and technology professor at Georgetown University and a regulatory expert. world about new technology. “TikTokers know that they cannot be controlled by anyone. They are very sophisticated about the information they receive. “
TikTok declined to comment on the users’ reference to its ties to China.
Some users are not ready to give up the app – or the perceived spy – so easily.
Hundreds of TikTok videos last week cataloged how young people continue to use the app in the United States, according to an investigation by The New York Times. One of the most popular methods mentioned is the use of a VPN, or virtual private network, which can hide a user’s location and make it appear that the person is somewhere else.
“They can’t ban TikTok in the US because VPNs aren’t banned,” TikTok user Sasha Casey said in a recent video that has been liked more than 60,000 times. “Using a VPN. And send the pictures to Congress when you do, because that’s what I’m going to do.
While a VPN can show that a phone, laptop or other electronic device is located in a remote location, it is not clear whether the technology can bypass the ban. The exact location of a device is stored in many places, including the app store that was used to download TikTok.
TikTok fans also seem to be behind the sudden rise in popularity for Xiaohongshu, the most downloaded free app on Tuesdays and Wednesdays in the US Apple Store. Hundreds of millions of people in China use the app, which, like TikTok, features short videos and text-based content. Xiaohongshu means “little red book” in Mandarin.
Mr Chander hopes the Supreme Court will uphold the ban this week, although he believes TikTok will win the case. He said the download of the Red Note and the Chinese spy meme showed that many Americans do not accept their government’s security measures, especially over free speech.
“When the United States shuts down a lot of free speech, which allies of democracy have not, it will make us censors and put us in an unusual position of silencing expression.” ,” said Mr. Chander. “This will make Americans who use TikTok seriously distrust the US government as having their best interests at heart.”
