after TikTok shuts down or is radically transformed in the US, on January 19, 2025

objective info

Some basic info on why it was banned or forced to sell:

• active / ongoing:
  • 📔Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act (PAFACA), H.R. 7521
  • 📔TikTok v. Garland
• 📔TikTok § United States § Federal level
• 📔Restrictions on TikTok in the United States
• 📔Category:Censorship of TikTok

my reaction

Move to other social media sites, especially those outside the hegemonic control of the U.S. or its allies. Media literacy demands that you get viewpoints from a variety of sources, even from sources that you usually don't trust.

Likely this would be social media that has a large-ish user base somewhere in the English-speaking world [2], but that isn't controlled by anyone with close ties to places like Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, or the US. These places include: [compare to this political map]

• India + Pakistan + Sri Lanka
• Philippines + Malaysia
• Guyana
• Southern Africa — South Africa + Namibia + Botswana + Zimbabwe + Zambia + Malawi
• Eastern Africa — Tanzania + Rwanda + TODO
• Western Africa — TODO

People to follow elsewhere

Creators on TikTok who I find it really valuable to follow, no matter what social media they're on:

• 📔Jamelle Bouie, opinion columnist for the New York Times
• 📔Crutches and Spice, Imani Barbarin, disability justice, Black, queer, fat, very radical
  • right-wing content funnels [original]
• 📔Bisan Owda, Palestian journalist [instagram]
• Accidental Astroboy, an amazing thinker and leader, radical, movement-building [**]
• Dr. C (Gabriel A. Cruz, Phd) [linktree]
• Evn the bioethicist (Evan L. Thornburg), they specialize in misinformation, disinformation, and conspiracy theories as a threat to public health [linktree] [linkedin] [youtube]
• Spencer Nugent, industrial design, Black ex-Mormon, hyper-generalist [**] [linkedin]
• Blair Imani / Smarter in Seconds, educational videos with pretty high production values [wikipedia] [linktree]
• Dr. Craig Richard, bioengineering [**] [linktree]
• Elizabeth Booker Houston, just very smart and well-informed about a huge variety of things [linktree]

White folks:

• Parkrose Permaculture, generally reasonable, serious, and radical [**]
• TizzyEnt / Michael McWhorter, signal-boosts good stories that would otherwise get overlooked [linktree] [**]
• Nope Brigade, sociology PhD candidate who studies the far right [**]