Socolow tackles TikTok in Politico piece
Politico published Michael Socolow’s piece “The Trouble with TikTok: Journalists should not be promoting a platform with a documented history of political censorship.” While the quirky videos may seem relatively harmless, the University of Maine associate professor wrote that TikTok “relies on its users’ ignorance of its origins and practices. How many teens, or journalists, are aware TikTok’s Chinese parent company, Bytedance, paid what was at the time the largest fine in Federal Trade Commission history for invading the privacy of underage users?” Socolow, a media historian, wrote that all social media “— whether TikTok, Weibo, Facebook or Twitter — privilege state or corporate authority above the public’s interest. That makes them terrific vehicles for advertising and propaganda. It also means the need for independent, comprehensive and critical reporting about these apps is vital. Watching journalists vie to become ‘TikTok famous’ like high school teenagers isn’t encouraging.”