It's also one of the few platforms I can use to upload content that is right-leaning in nature without fear that it will be suppressed, oddly enough. There are, of course, exceptions to this, but for a platform whose strings are being pulled by our enemy, it actually allows for more conservative content than many people understand. A few up-and-coming political influencers on the right actually found their start on TikTok. Sarah Fields and 

On January 10, TikTok will go to the Supreme Court where it will contend with the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act (PAFACA) which mandates that ByteDance either sell itself to a U.S. entity or cease its operations here in the U.S. by January 19 of this year. 

ByteDance will fight back, claiming that it has First Amendment rights and that a forced divestiture or ban of TikTok would infringe on those rights. It will also argue that TikTok is being targeted in discriminatory ways other foreign-owned apps aren't. 

This might be an uphill battle for ByteDance, as the U.S. has legal precedent for this, as it's restricted foreign-owned communication platforms in the name of national interest before. Moreover, a new study was just released that proves, without a shadow of a doubt, that TikTok is effectively a pro-China propaganda platform aimed to make U.S. users feel less threatened, or even fond, of China. 

According to The Free Press, an updated study by Rutgers University's Network Contagion Research Institute (NCRI) shows conclusive evidence "downplays negative content related to China." This includes events like Beijing's bloody 1989 Tiananmen Square incident, and the concentration camps filled with Uyghurs in the Xinjiang province. 

The research shows a disturbing trend of content meant to make China seem like a great country, with the direct intention of changing Western minds about it: 

The report presents TikTok as an example of the “persuasive technologies” China is developing to shape public opinion in the West. Another major conclusion of the report, based on online polling, found that the more time users spent on TikTok, the more positively they viewed China’s human rights record and its desirability as a travel destination.

“This scaled indoctrination isn’t hypothetical. It’s real,” Finkelstein told The Free Press. “I think that the Supreme Court hearing now isn’t about whether or not we’re dealing with a hypothetical threat. The Supreme Court hearing is about whether we’re going to allow this continued indoctrination.”

According to NCRI, more than 80 percent of the content generated in an Instagram search on the Uyghurs was negative toward China, compared to around 11 percent on TikTok. A search for “Tiananmen” on YouTube, meanwhile, generated content that was 65 percent negative for the Chinese government, compared to just 20 percent on TikTok.

The “results strongly suggest that algorithmic amplification of pro- and anti-CCP content on Instagram and YouTube is largely determined by commercial consideration, whereas advancing CCP propaganda plays some role in the algorithmic curation of TikTok content,” the study reads.

A TikTok spokesperson denies these allegations, and claims the preliminary study was debunked, and says this one is equally false, however it's unclear if the SCOTUS will see it that way. 

Here's the thing. If the Supreme Court does hold that TikTok is indeed a propaganda platform as the Rutgers University study suggests, and it gives it the order to either leave U.S. shores or be sold, I hope ByteDance chooses to sell it, but even that comes with certain pitfalls for the platform. 

It's who it's sold to that's important. 

For instance, Microsoft has shown interest in attempting to purchase the platform before, and I have no doubt it will again. It's a platform with millions and millions of users, so it would be a superb get. However, Microsoft is not a corporation I would want picking it up. In fact, there are very few that I would, at this time, be pleased about. 

There are a couple of options worth discussing, however. 

In the early part of 2024, Kevin O'Leary — popularly known as "Mr. Wonderful" on Shark Tank, and recently that guy who made a CNN panel really mad with facts — launched a crowdfunding initiative through StartEngine, inviting investors to help him in a bid to buy TikTok. As of today, O'Leary is looking to acquire it and lead TikTok into an American era.

If O'Leary succeeds, this could be a game-changer, not just for TikTok, but it could become another free speech platform where information is freely distributed that counters narratives and distributes facts. If O'Leary maintains the STEM educational aspects, TikTok would become a fantastic platform overall. 

Then there's real estate tycoon, and former owner of the LA Dodgers, Frank McCourt. According to the New York Post, McCourt is also gathering resources to purchase TikTok in the event of a sale, and if he acquires it, I imagine things will get very interesting, and possibly for the better. 

McCourt is the creator of "Project Liberty," a venture that aims to transform the internet's current architecture into a more decentralized, user-focused ecosystem. McCourt's aim is to make sure companies that collect and store your data... can't. It will be totally up to you how it's stored and used under McCourt's vision of the internet. It will also decentralize social media, making it so that you can send messages from one social media app to the other in much the same way you can send email from Gmail to Hotmail. This would force algorithmic changes that would be more open to the users and go a long way in protecting the privacy of each user. 

McCourt's acquisition of TikTok would bring it into an era where it's more user-controlled, not corporate controlled. 

These two men might make TikTok into something worth celebrating, and I'm not sure who else would do well with it otherwise. The issue with TikTok is that if a corporation in America were to acquire it, they would likely implement moderation policies that Americans are sick of. There would probably be censorship with the excuse that it's combatting "misinformation." Ideological bias would likely play a huge part, resulting in TikTok effectively becoming a less interesting version of Instagram. 

If that does happen, TikTok will die, and the U.S. sale will mean nothing. 

So, the best case scenario isn't a ban, but it's not the worst case. That would be its purchase by a company like Microsoft. The best case scenario would be the sale to someone with more freedom-minded goals. In other words, someone who learned from Elon Musk's example of X. A video platform with an X-minded approach to free speech would likely become a dominating force in the culture. 

That's honestly my hope, but time will tell soon.