TikTok is a short-form video sharing service with a complicated history, as ByteDance used Musical.ly's audience to cultivate an international version of Dǒuyīn (抖音, lit. “shake sound”) and forced the two to merge on August 2, 2018¹⁾ to many people's dismay at first.

It's a fast-paced platform that heavily relies on an algorithm to let users mindlessly sift past short-form videos that may be 'cute', 'entertaining', or 'informative' to a degree, but concerns arise if you look at: how these algorithms craft propaganda-disseminating echo chambers, how content moderation is done, and how your biometric data is handled²⁾ when much of the platform heavily revolves around biometric data.

In 2014, two entrepreneurs, Jùn(Alex) Zhū (朱骏) and Lùyù(Louis) Yáng (阳陆育), developed a short-form education app, realized the concept was doomed, then spent a month reworking the app to have a much broader focus as Musical.ly around July 2014. They would see exponential growth by April 2015 as a 'lip-syncing' app,³⁾ since it happened to be in the right spot to leech off Lip Sync Battle.⁴⁾

Later that year, ByteDance launches their Kwai clone, A.me, which became Dǒuyīn,⁵⁾⁶⁾ and they would be quick to launch an international version called TikTok around 2017.⁷⁾ ByteDance would then make its major purchase of Musical.ly on November 9, 2017^8)9)10) and slowly merged the two until August 2, 2018.¹¹⁾ While its users did resist at first,^12)13)14)15) time would pass and it eventually became a household name.

This rise scared Meta Platforms, who paid conservatives¹⁶⁾¹⁷⁾ to demand an 'investigation',¹⁸⁾ which brought us to Trump's EO 13942, except it was delayed and canceled with Biden's EO 14034.¹⁹⁾ However, fearmongering persisted at the state²⁰⁾ and federal level,²¹⁾ despite public sentiments waning,²²⁾²³⁾ then it became known that conservatives disliked 'pro-Palestinian' content.^24)25)26)27)

In 2024, Biden signs Public Law 118-50, a foreign aid package that resumed pressures to 'divest',²⁸⁾²⁹⁾ which spelt disaster in an election year.^30)31)32) Trump gets re-elected,³³⁾ so there was a brief Xiaohongshu migration³⁴⁾³⁵⁾ as TikTok loses its case, then came a preemptive pause on January 18, 2025³⁶⁾³⁷⁾ before a vague 'promise' had been revealed.³⁸⁾³⁹⁾ During negotiations, Trump delayed the ban five times.⁴⁰⁾

On January 22, 2026, TikTok formally ceded its Statesian operations with ByteDance keeping a 19.9% stake, while the rest was owned by TikTok USDS and several other 'pro-Trump' investors.⁴¹⁾⁴²⁾ Naturally, the handover was criticized, as the policy changes raised concerns,⁴³⁾⁴⁴⁾ and users alleged that their content was being censored.⁴⁵⁾⁴⁶⁾ Some users then moved to UpScrolled.

• The platform's name borrows the 'tick-tock' onomatopoeia for an analog clock, alluding to its short and snappy videos, while also serving as analogue to the Chinese name's onomatopoeia.
  • In the Chinese language, the equivalent onomatopoeia for 'tick-tock' is actually 'dīdā' (滴答).
  • Due to the platform's popularity, it has become inconvenient to search for 'tick-tock' being used for ominous warnings, such as “Tick-Tock for TikTok” for example.^47)48)49)50)
• A number of users engage in algospeak to evade theoretical content moderation filters when they discuss sensitive subjects,^51)52)53) but you have to admit that it sounds paranoid or superstitious since this ignores factors like compassion fatigue or how social media can be an escape.
  • In late 2022, The Washington Post conducted their experiment on alleged TikTok suppression, but concluded that their experiment was flawed and deemed it inconclusive.⁵⁴⁾
• Personally, I do not have any memories of Musical.ly since it got popular after I graduated high school, but I do vaguely recall being confused whenever I saw their early advertisements.
• During the 2018 rebrand, it ended up catapulting itself into the public consciousness since it became cool to hate on TikTok, solely because it was the 'cringe duet' and 'women dancing' app.
  • At the same time, Russian users on Sosach began trolling people with bait-and-switch edits of said dancing with the Ricardo Milos dance, though Milos would later discourage this.
• There has been a phenomenon of well-known, iconic songs becoming 'TikTok songs' through TikTok, which eventually comes down to influence what radio stations decide to play over the air.

• 'State-controlled media' label
• YouTube - Arguably pioneered the format, killed it, then brought it back as YouTube Shorts.

• TikTok - The front page of TikTok.
  • @tiktok_us and @tiktokpolicy on Twitter