Time will judge TikTok’s merits

Ijust wasted a good part of a day disappearing into the world of TikTok. I’ve seen kids filming themselves for TikTok videos, but it wasn’t until the app’s users tricked Trump rally organisers with fake seat reservations that I realised the force of this relatively new phenomenon.

I’m fascinated by the power of the virtual crowd and the very positive or disrupting influence they can have. Whenever you’ve got a gathering of people, you’ve got potential power and a virtual alliance can be so much greater.

We’ve seen the force of social media rally millions for the climate change strikes and how social media has determined the movements of the protesting in Hong Kong.

But what about the force of those who have the potential to have a massive influence without leaving their own homes, when all we thought they were doing was making mini videos.

For those who haven’t kept up, TikTok is a 15-second-or-less video creation app that has users sing, dance, act, or meme to the backdrop of the pre-recorded audio clips or songs. It has a whole host of editing features to make it easy and fun.

TikTok morphed out of the lip-syncing app Musical.ly, so music is an important part. Whether it’s cooking classes from a prison, pranking, comedy challenge or cosplay, there is always accompanying music.

TikTok was growing exponentially but it became the app of choice during the Covid-19 lockdown as millions of bored people went crazy creating videos. In the first three months of this year, it had 315-million installs and 2 billion downloads and set a record for the most downloads an app in a single quarter.

Commentators claim TikTok is the coolest social media yet. The New York Times described it as, ‘‘the only truly pleasant social network in existence’’ because of its strict online safety rules, protection of minors and a firm stand against online bullying.

TikTok says its audience prefers to use the video app for entertainment, not political debates, and it’s a refuge for positivity online. But surely that’s naive as the platform has already found itself enmeshed in the world of politics which not only Trump campaigners discovered.

Political activists are already adapting existing content and setting it to political speeches to make political points. BackBoris and BooForBoris hashtags are popular, as are videos for or against President Trump. And there was an explosion of content from the Black Lives Matter movement to the killing of George Floyd.

There was a time when we wouldn’t express our political views anywhere, let alone on social media, but the style of TikTok has enabled the current more open expression of fan culture in politics. Edit together a selection of cuts from your favourite politician, add music and post, and you’ve not only got a fan video but a political statement.

It will be interesting to see how TikTok manages this growth in the future, if it really is determined to keep its product positive.

With the rise of TikTok, it is likely politicians and businesses alike will step up their production of content for or inspired by the platform. The challenge to them is how to embrace the TikTok style of home-produced, user-generated content by ‘‘real’’ people.

But a word of warning. Whether these TikTok followers are the target audience for a company or a politician’s marketing or not, it would be foolish to ignore it. Because what looks like playful, funny interactions may have just as much potential for harm as for good.