It was supposed to be so simple that we didn't even notice; that in fact was the point, for at least two reasons, one explicit and one implicit. When TikTok came under US ownership last week – bringing an end to years of threats, investigations, promises and much else besides – it was supposed to slip quickly into its new structure, quietly and smoothly.
But it didn't. The app broke, apparently because of a power outage. Users complained that they couldn't see important searches such as anti-ICE videos. Alternatives surged up the App Store.
Apps like TikTok have always done well out of being translucent. We are aware that they are a platform but not really. They show us the content we want but stand on the edge just enough that we don't forget that they are there.
The platforms matter; the medium really is the message, because the medium's algorithm decides what messages or posts you actually see. But the platforms itself tend to be resistant to talking about that, because it draws attention to the suspension of disbelief required to happily scroll through a feed: the constant, if repressed, awareness not only that you don't decide what you see, but also that there is so much you are not seeing.
Instead, the platforms mostly compete on vibes. Instagram and its coral pink spaces that are full of friends; X and its busy news updates and debates; TikTok and the sense that you are on the bleeding edge of culture, finding out the latest in creation and criticism. As with most good marketing, these vibes are not exactly inaccurate, they're just incomplete, representing a kind of refracted version of what actually happens there.
There's no easy way to fix the problem. We know because people have tried. The most obvious example is the Fediverse, an attempt to build social networks that are able to integrate with each other – so that you could read a Threads post on Mastodon, for instance, in much the same way that you can send messages between different email platforms. But adoption has been slow, the experience still remains a little clunky, and any excitement that was around following Elon Musk's purchase of Twitter seems to have slowly dissipated. (Another less pleasant example is apps such as Meta's Vibes, a platform specifically for AI videos.)
The trick here of course is that we are the ones both making and consuming the content; the platforms only act as a go-between. Whole legal battles have been fought on these grounds – in the US, for instance, "Section 230" allows for social media platforms to be exempt from being the legal publisher of the user-generated content that they host. The platforms like this because it means they are not like a TV show, responsible for what they broadcast.
But that responsibility cuts both ways: they are not accountable for it, but nor did they make it. The various issues that TikTok has run into this last week is an important reminder, as social media continues to change. Platforms are held up by posts; if you break the posts, platforms can easily fall. |
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| Written by Andrew Griffin |
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