The TikTok ban situation has been messy from the beginning. Now, some conspiracy influencers are claiming that Meta bought TikTok to avoid the ban. The problem is that didn’t happen. Multi-billion dollar corporations can’t change hands quietly over night. That’s for a variety of reasons, including national anti-trust laws. With only a handful of social media platforms as large as TikTok, there’s simply too much oversight and red tape for that kind of sneaky purchase to happen. The lack of evidence for that claim hasn’t stopped the wild speculation and allegations, however. Even worse, some conspiracy influencers are feeding the confusion.
Influencers, Conspiracies, and the TikTok Ban
The TikTok ban might be over, but conspiracy season has just begun. While some confused TikTokers are earnestly trying to unravel the news as it unfolds, others are feeding the fire of controversy for personal benefit. Fearmongering and clickbait are the PB&J of internet awfulness. Some creators are using justified fears of government censorship to draw eyes to their own pages. Others, in what appears to be an earnest attempt to understand, are spreading dangerous misinformation.
CEO Tags and New Account Confusion
A video by TikTok user @chadddorack lists some of the supposed evidence that Meta bought TikTok, garnering over 30.3k likes. Yet some of the claims in the video and its comment section aren’t true. The claim that “Facebook now has a TikTok page” but didn’t before the ban is incorrect, at least according to the Internet Archive’s WayBack Machine. The Archive shows a TikTok page for Facebook taking back to 2022.
One commenter, AppalachianLeshy, raised another popular but misleading claim, that the profile of TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew “no longer says CEO.” The implication is that Shou has been removed as CEO and thus removed the title, except there’s evidence that the opposite is true. Internet Archive results dating back to 2022 show Shou’s profile without “CEO” in it. Another user, laugh_in_the_madness, was quick to correct the misinformation in the video’s comment section.
Facebook and Instagram have had accounts here since 2022. I know we are all suspicious but facts are facts.
laugh_in_the_madness
Even the video’s creator liked the comment. it’s reasonable to conclude that not everyone spreading misinformation is a conspiracy influencer. Amongst those intentionally capitalizing on fear, there are also those just doing their best to understand. Of course, sharing info with others to demystify the world is one of the things that made TikTok popular. The threats of government censorship and corporate propaganda are real, but so are the scams of grifters and conspiracy theorists. A little fact-checking goes a long way.
