TikTokTrends Week: 1
Week 1 hour 0.
What is this newsletter about?
In this newsletter, I want to talk about TikTok, and how the trends and popular content on the platform are affected by current events, link to a bunch of videos, and explain what the trend is all about. I’ll give context into what the video is talking about and last but not least, fact-check any trend that needs some fact-checking.
You don’t need to have the app installed to read this newsletter on your phone or on the computer. I am going to be linking videos that are watchable on your browser without a TikTok account.
Let’s start with what TikTok is:
TikTok is a social media platform that is based around 15 or 60-second videos where the creator can fine-tune their recordings and post them on their profile. TikTok is mainly known for users creating dancing and lip-syncing videos. The platform allows users to utilize audio licensed by TikTok or the user can create their own audio. The app is very audio-based, so people can search for videos using the audio.
TikTok is known for it’s ‘For You’ page, where an algorithm decides what you see on your feed. The algorithm is based on what you watched, how long you watched it, who you followed, where you are in the world, what content you have liked, and a lot more. There are also hashtags, as seen in almost all of the social media platforms now, and many other quirks and tricks you can do in the app.
TikTok is still mainly used as a space where creators dance and lip-sync to songs. But there are also many other formats that creators have been working on to gain a following, a lot of which includes political commentating.
Let’s segue into our first hashtag of this week:
#fkDonaldTrump
The sound of the video has been circling TikTok since June but has been gaining traction since the beginning of this month. The song is a mashup of 3 separate sound bytes from songs. It begins with the chorus of God Bless America, by Lee Greenwood. “And I’m proud to be an American…” Then the sound continues with an old vine sound created by Tyler the Creator saying “Sike” Later continuing with YG & Nipsey Hussle’s FDT song. “F*ck Donald Trump…”
Many of the videos shared on TikTok show a family or friend of the creator, who is supposedly a Donald Trump supporter, who is tricked by the start of the TikTok sound. The TikTok also tricks some viewers, by starting with one song and changing it to another.
The Proud to be an American song has been used numerous times by Trump during his rallies, and it is wildly used in his support. While the FDT song, which was released in 2016, is obliviously not a fan of the current President.
There are over 8 thousand videos with the same sound on TikTok. Most are in support of the sound, pranking people, or just reacting to the song. There are also some Trump supporters commentating and reacting to people using the sound in their videos.
#TikTokBan
This issue has been talked a lot in the news these past couple of weeks. Is TikTok going to be banned in the U.S.? – Well according to this TikTok’er its most likely not going to be banned. And here are the reasons why she says it won’t be:
1- It is run by an American CEO, a former executive of Disney, Kevin Meyers: True! But does this mean that TikTok won’t be banned? I’m not so sure about that.
2- Hired a new Chief Security Officer: True! Here is the announcement. But again, How does this indicate that TikTok won’t be banned?
3- TikTok is a baby compared to other social media platforms: Also, true. For the last time, why is that a reason not to ban a platform?
The video has been watched 3.8 Million times, has been liked 1.3 million and has 35 thousand comments. These are pretty high numbers, although TikTok has a tendency to get more views that we are used to from other platforms due to their algorithm and how they count a view. Some of you might know this but a view on social media platforms is not as easy as it seems. Every platform counts a view differently. For YouTube, you need to watch 30 seconds of the video before it is a view. On Facebook, that number is 3 seconds, 2 on Twitter. On TikTok, it is every time a video starts playing. Basically 1 person could watch the video 10 times to get 10 views.
Let’s get back to the TikTok ban. So what is being said in the news about this issue? Well, Mike Pompeo 2 weeks ago, said that they are looking into banning the platform. TikTok has been banned in India, due to national security. And has been banned in Hong Kong, due to TikTok’s policies not matching those of the governments.
The hashtag has gotten over 225 million views. Many reasons are put out there, explaining why they think TikTok might be banned in the U.S. Safety, Trump not being able to control the platform, and The GenZ attack on the Trump rally.
The #TikTokBan especially got blown up during an update last week when many creators reported their views, likes, and shares were not showing. However, the issue was resolved by TikTok, and they sent a tweet confirming.
So, will it actually be banned? Well, we can’t know for sure what will happen, but it would be unprecedented (although not unusual in the year 2020) it is unlikely that the Trump administration will go as far as banning a whole platform. As ForegnPolicy.com explains, The U.S. law likely won’t allow a flat ban on a free social media app, but the U.S. can hurt the company by attacking the corporate relationship, and force changes in their privacy policies.
Although the information in the video is true, I don’t think it is enough to explain why, or why not the U.S. won’t ban TikTok.
#TikTokPets
Who doesn’t want to see the pets of TikTok? This is Rover the Cat, he has over 300k followers and over 20 million views in total. It’s easy to say that he is a very recognizable cat in the TikTok world. The video is of rover cat walking down an aisle of rats while wearing a rat costume of course, what else.
That’s all for this week, nothing very exciting was trending this week that I came across.
Let me know if you would like to see something different, or if I missed anything this week on TikTok! And don’t forget to subscribe if you haven’t already.
I’ll be back next week with the TikTokTrends of the week!
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