TikTok, Boom. (2022) - full transcript

TikTok was a new app.

I knew millions of people
were downloading it by the day.

And I just thought,
"I want to post on a platform

where younger
generations are."

Once I got into junior year
of high school,

I was like, "Okay,
I'll give TikTok a try."

I remember when I started
seeing views pile up

in the thousands,
and hundred-thousands.

I didn't know
I had this much power

just because I've been
putting my voice on an app.

On TikTok,
anything can happen.



♪ ♪

♪ Watermelon sugar high ♪

♪ Watermelon sugar
high ♪

♪ Watermelon sugar ♪

♪ Dream, dream, uh ♪

♪ Yeah ♪

♪ Listen to me now ♪

♪ ♪

I guess I'm on TikTok now.

TikTok has
been downloaded

more than two billion times,

more than any app ever.

I think TikTok
right now is probably

on the cutting edge
of all social media...



and it is becoming
a world onto itself

for a lot of people,

especially young people.

♪ ♪

TikTok is
the first Chinese app

to threaten the dominance
of Silicon Valley.

It's
a cyber security story.

It's an algorithm story.

It's a biased story.

It's a geopolitical story.

...TikTok.
We may be banning TikTok.

It was bizarre
why when suddenly this

kind of a fun
little kids app,

become wrapped up

in this huge
geopolitical storm

between the US and China

that was only
getting hotter.

Fix your mirrors.
Can I drive?

Can you drive?

So my family's
from Afghanistan.

They were
just very grateful

because they could finally
come here.

They were just amazed
by the privileges

that were being brought
to them.

You didn't--you didn't
use your signal there.

I did.
Oh, I thought I did.

My parents,
their dreams of America

were flourishing
before 9/11,

and then once those planes
hit the towers,

their dreams
were shattered too,

because it was as if they
were responsible for that.

♪ ♪

Growing up
as an Afghan-American,

it was really rough.

I'll just have
a small amount.

Yesterday, he was teaching me
how to drive.

Every five seconds,
"Don't scratch my rims.

Don't scratch my rims."
Oh, my God.

I'm not gonna scratch your rims.
I know how to drive.

The only times
where I feel like I belong

is with my family.

My cousins, my brother...

I--I feel like I have
a place with them,

because they understand
where I come from.

How'd you make it look pretty?

- Why?
- Like, it looks like

a Instagram picture.

We had a phase,

growing up
as children of refugees

in a country
that doesn't like refugees...

And my school
isn't diverse at all.

I don't feel
like I'm one of them.

I don't think my classmates

even think
that I'm one of them.

I got called a terrorist.

I got called Bin Laden.

I've been called
a part of the Taliban,

since I'm Afghan.

I've been called
all these things.

♪ ♪

And I always felt
like an outsider.

♪ ♪

My mom made these two.

I wore this dress on my TikTok.

I have gone viral
a few times.

It was my first time
posting on TikTok.

It was like 40,000 views
I've gotten on it.

And it was just me dancing
with my Afghan clothes on.

The response was like amazing
because through TikTok

I found
so many other Afghans,

and so many
other Afghan-Americans.

I never knew how big the
Afghan-American community was

'til I joined TikTok

and I've seen more people
accepting me for who I am.

I got so excited.

I really wanna be a part
of my community more

through TikTok.

♪ ♪

♪ Wipe, wipe,
wipe it down ♪

♪ Wipe, wipe ♪

TikTok is an app
that's completely different

than any other type
of social media

or entertainment platform
that we've ever seen before.

TikTok was the first platform
to really popularise

high quality vertical
video content,

which just makes it
so easy to consume.

♪ ♪

The "For You" page
is completely,

individually tailored to you,

based on the data
that they gather about you.

I mean, I cannot explain

how fantastic
this algorithm is

at delivering you exactly
what you didn't even know

that you wanted.

♪ ♪

What TikTok does so well
is discovery,

it allows you to drill down
on the whole internet,

and find these really
specific groups of people

that resonate with you.

♪ ♪

It's just any kind of niche,
subculture or community

where you can find creators
that are in that niche.

People just get discovered
much faster,

they blow up much faster,

and it's just...
everything goes ten times

more viral than it would
on any other social app.

It's remaking
the food landscape,

the fashion landscape...

People learning on TikTok...

It's hard to find an industry
that TikTok hasn't infiltrated

or disrupted.

TikTok
has captured the attention

of the world's
most lucrative market,

young people.

And with it, the power
to reshape the future.

DJ Spencer in the home.

Mix.

My friend Scott
comes up to me,

and he goes, "Hey, man,
I wanna show you something

you've never heard before."

And I was like, "What did you
just do right now?"

Like, "Is this a trick?
Is this a game?" Like...

And he was like, "No, no, no,
dude, it's called beatboxing.

You make music
with your mouth."

And I'm like, "You are
doing that with your face?"

I was 15. I was a sophomore
in high school,

and I remember that moment
just being magic to me.

Like it was love
at first sound.

This is Spencer Polanco,
and this is what I do.

And I decided that night
I was gonna be a beatboxer.

But you can also imagine me
busting out of my room

just, you know,
wild Spencer...

full of excitement
in my eyes.

"Dad! Mom! I know what I wanna
do for the rest of my life.

I wanna be a beatboxer."

And then they looked at me
like I was crazy.

♪ Spencer beatbox ♪

I grew up in New York City.

My father is from Ecuador,
and he came here

and found my mom.

My mom is first generation,
uh, Chinese family.

My father, uh...

He wanted me to be
a tennis player,

and my mom wanted me
to be a doctor.

And then when
I expressed something

they didn't understand,
which is beatboxing,

they were accepting,
but confused,

and then unaccepting
and even more confused.

I--I struggled
with a little bit of anxiety

and depression
when I was in college.

I had to make a decision,

and I said no
to formal education.

And I said yes
to beatboxing.

I mean, I was
a struggling artist.

I was a...
typical artist that was

I was performing
in the streets

of New York City.

I was in the subways,
busking...

Some days, you make $20
working all day.

When I started TikTok,

I had to look at myself
in the mirror,

and say, "If this isn't
gonna happen right now,

it's not gonna happen."

Okay, this is
the first viral video.

Look at my hair.

I didn't even, like,
fix my hair for this video.

And that was
a six-second video.

I woke up the next day

and it had, like,
three million views.

And I was just
genuinely confused.

I was like, "Oh, my God.
They like me."

I look at it and I'm like,
"There's something here."

So I decided to post more,
and I decided to do

everything single idea
I possibly could."

TikTok topping Facebook

to become the world's
most downloaded app.

TikTok is absolutely massive.

Last year,
they reported they have

over two billion users,

with almost a billion
monthly active users.

People spend more time
on TikTok per day

than Facebook, Snapchat,
Instagram, YouTube.

Facebook is absolutely
desperate right now

to regain any semblance
of relevance,

which they've lost
quite a while ago.

In many areas,
we're behind our competitors.

The fastest growing app
is TikTok.

The elephant in the room,
of course,

is the fact that TikTok
is owned by ByteDance,

a Chinese company.

And it's the first time
we've seen a huge Chinese

consumer tech company
come in and dominate

the American market.

♪ ♪

So there was this guy
from China

named Zhang Yiming.

He worked for a number
of startups

before starting up
his own company,

a company called ByteDance.

♪ ♪

The thing that struck me
the most about TikTok

was just how calculated
their founders were

from the very beginning
about their goal,

which was to become this kind
of global force,

and really, like, penetrate
the, you know, the zeitgeist

of the US.

♪ ♪

The story is going to sound
very similar

to many Silicon Valley
entrepreneurs.

Zhang Yiming came
from a middle class family.

And he basically
just had this dream

that he was going to make
something important of himself.

♪ ♪

So, when the iPhone came out,
in the late 2000s,

he was just really
blown away by the fact

that you could have
a full computing device,

small enough to fit
in your pocket,

and he was just convinced
mobile internet

was going to be the next
once in a lifetime opportunity

that you'd read about
in history books,

and he was determined
to take advantage

of this big wave.

♪ ♪

They started
in an apartment,

which is very common
in Chinese...

sort of internet
entrepreneurship lore.

About 2015 or so,
ByteDance was doing

experiments with video,

and Yiming had
this sort of strange idea

about recommendation engines
which serves you content

that it thinks you'd be
interested in.

So ByteDance bought Duoyin.

♪ ♪

Within six months
after launch

it hit this inflection point.

Somehow it just became viral.

Yo, what's going on?

Dude, it is so hot.

Dude, why don't
you just go get some

Ben & Jerry's ice cream?

People pay me to put
their product in my videos.

It's--it's--it's crazy.

These are from this week.

They're so many.
Look.

I get, like, clothes
from, like, all different

major brands.

Look at that.

After the success
of Douyin in China,

a lip-synch app
already popular

with kids and young teens
in the US.

And merged them,
rebranding the app

as TikTok.

One thing Zhang Yiming
did was to create

two different products.

Duoyin was
for the Chinese market,

and it was a Chinese app,

and TikTok was

for the global market.

And what that meant

was that he could keep
the Chinese app

walled off in China,
with Chinese rules,

and then keep TikTok
for the rest of the globe.

TikTok was,
all of the sudden,

this huge success
from day one.

TikTok has done
what no other Chinese-made app

has done before.

It's cracked
the international market,

and become a global sensation.

TikTok is
now available

in 154 countries
and 75 languages,

rivalling Silicon Valley's
biggest apps.

TikTok and its owner ByteDance

were the first Chinese
social media company

to really provide
a wake-up call

to Facebook, Google,
Amazon, and others,

that it's not just
about Silicone Valley

bringing technology
to the world,

but, really,
that China's a real force

to be reckoned with.

There's sort
of this perception

that there was too much

of a cultural difference

between China
and the rest of the world

and that Chinese companies
didn't know to build

globally successful
social media.

I think TikTok's completely
blown that out of water.

The world we all grew up in
was one where America

dominated culturally,

where it dominated
technologically,

and the world that we
would end up retiring in

would probably be one
where China dominates

in most of those areas.

Power's shifting
to China rapidly.

And ByteDance and the story
of TikTok is part of that.

- Hi.
- Hi.

- How are you?
- Good.

So what are you gonna do?

I wanna play with...
adding just, like,

more dimension
to my hair,

it's, like, a little flat...

Yes.

I think
that it's scary

to be the first generation,

to have
our entire lives documented.

♪ ♪

Every action, you know,
every haircut,

every look change...
it's on people's radars.

You know, I work a job
where so much of it

is, like, looking...
being looked at, or...

- Yeah.
- Looking at myself, honestly.

Big deal.

So, I'm influencer
and content creation work,

so I went viral
for the first time,

uh, when I was 16 years old
for a confrontation

with my Senator.

Republican Senator Jeff Flake
held a town hall

in Mesa, Arizona last night,

and got an earful
from 16-year-old activist

Deja Foxx.
Take a look.

So I'm a young woman,
and you're a middle-aged man.

- I'm a person of colour...
- Ouch.

...and you're white.
Uhm, I come from a background

of poverty and I didn't
always have parents

to guide me through life.

You come from privilege.

Why would you deny me
the American Dream?

I woke up
the next morning,

and 18 million people
had seen that video.

And I had a request
to my email to go live on CNN.

I can't sit idly by
while women like me

are countlessly and constantly
being ignored

on Capitol Hill.

And I suddenly realised
that all those things

I've been putting
on social

that I thought were only
going to the people

who knew me, overnight
I could be visible

to people
that I will never know.

♪ ♪

The internet connected me
to the entire world.

TikTok is a blowup overnight
kind of place.

On any platform where you can
get extreme reach,

you open yourself up
to benefits, right?

larger followings,
more views,

more attention.

You must open yourself up
to more hate,

to people who are going
to tear you down,

tear you apart,
pick at you...

I live in a pretty constant
state of anxiety.

I don't know what it's like
to live in a world

where I'm not
being perceived always.

And it's this tug of war
between...

that's kind of what I want,

and it's kind of the thing
I fear the most.

I think there is a really
interesting line

between what it means
to be empowered

by your sexuality,

versus being exploited
by it online.

I definitely think
that women are seeing

larger followings,
more attention,

from the ways that they're
being sexualised online.

You can be a bad bitch
in a bikini

and a boss bitch
in a blazer.

Do both.

The posts where I'm showing
more skin do better.

But I also question
why that is.

If we think that these platforms
really are just showing us

the most popular content,
without really interrogating

why we're seeing
what we're seeing.

That's dangerous.

There is so much mystery
to the algorithm.

The algorithm.
Like, what does that even mean?

When I call your name
I shall place the sorting hat

on your head...

and you'll be sorted
in your Houses.

I refer to TikTok
as a sorting hat,

in reference
to the sorting hat

from "Harry Potter."

When the kids show up
at Hogwarts,

there's this magical
sorting hat

that sorts them into one
of the four schools.

TikTok's recommendation
algorithm serves

as that type
of sorting hat.

It sorts its users
into different audiences,

then it sorts videos
into different clusters

that appeal
to different audiences.

Most apps, like Facebook,
Twitter, Instagram

you actually have to follow
a lot of accounts,

or other people,
or people you know.

TikTok is very different,
in that, even if you

didn't follow anybody,
you would over time,

just by using the app,

get a very personalised
entertainment experience

for yourself.

Is anyone else, like,
a little weirded out

about how specific TikTok's
algorithm gets

for the "For You" page.

The "For You" page
on TikTok is the default

that the app opens into.

On the one hand, it has
a bunch of attributes

about the video.

It has the song in it.
It has a dog.

And the other, it has a bunch
of attributes about you,

you're this age,
you live here,

those are contextual clues
to feed their algorithm

to determine
what your tastes are.

My TikTok algorithm
is just like,

"You have ADHD,
you have BPD,

you're depressed."

When you're looking
at each video

on the "For You" page,
TikTok, the app,

is looking at how we react
to that video.

The algorithm starts
to become smarter

and just off of
these long sessions

where you're addictively
scrolling through videos.

And then adjust what videos
it shows you in the future.

And over time, it builds
almost a fingerprint

of your tastes.

I'm talking, like,
I was just thinking about

making a peanut butter
and jelly sandwich,

and then, out of nowhere,
someone is making

a peanut butter and jelly
on my "For You" page.

But lately, I kid you not,
it hasn't been things

that I Google or I talk about,

it's been thoughts.

Are any other girls, like,
kind of aggravated

that it took more
than 20 years to figure out

we were bisexual, but
it took my TikTok algorithm

like 37 seconds?

TikTok is just
the latest manifestation

of the power that comes
from connecting

billions of people in
the world with really powerful

machine learning
recommendation algorithms.

The creator economy
is the fastest growing type

of small business, with more
than 50 million people

around the world
who consider themselves

to be Content Creators.

♪ ♪

All the biggest
brands, they wanna do TikTok

campaigns, because it has
the hype right now.

TikTok has just
really resonated

with this Gen-Z audience,

which is where
the most valuable users are.

We have brands poised
to spend over $15 billion

in the next year,
on influencer marketing alone.

Eyeballs bring money
and brands chase the eyeballs.

chase young users.

In less than a year,

you have almost 35 million
followers on TikTok.

Over two billion likes...
Billion. Wow.

TikTokers, they've
embraced that idea of being

the entrepreneur.

They're not just in it
to get famous,

they're also in it
to get rich and successful.

The social media
influencer market

is a multi-billion
dollar industry,

and some young people
are cashing in big time.

I mean, these
TikTokers are making more

in their first year
than a lot of huge YouTubers

have made throughout
the entire past decade.

Late 2019
was my first brand deal

and it was for Nike.

When I first told my parents

that I was doing something
for Nike, they were like,

"What? Nike?
Like Nike?"

The fact that anyone wants
to use beatboxing for anything

is the coolest thing
on Earth to me.

This is a doll made
for Little Caesar's.

Life-size.
Even got the hair.

I'm a beatboxer,
and I'm hanging out

at Jason Derulo's house,
like, "How did this happen?"

Like this is dope.

TikTok has made
music more fun.

When we talk about
revolutionising, you know,

an industry...

...that has existed
for so long by itself...

TikTok's taking away
that guardian, that little gate.

Now there's so many
independent artists,

especially coming from TikTok,
that have just, like,

cult following that'll
have people that believe

in them, being outside
of the industry.

It wasn't until I was on TV,
when I presented

at the
"Billboard Music Awards,"

that's when my parents,
they were like,

"All right, Spencer's
on TV now,

I don't know what to do
with this information."

♪ ♪

TikTok has also
completely upended

the talent industry
in Hollywood.

Hollywood people love TikTok,
because they're like,

"Great, more famous people,
more people to make us money."

These TikTokers are launching
their own brands.

You have a beauty line
coming out, right?

Think of Addison Rae,
right?

She's a hugely popular
TikToker.

She launched Item Beauty.

So you see a lot
of these young TikTokers

building already
multi-million dollar empires.

Someone like Bella Poarch
went viral for this, like,

lipsynching video,
where she's making

these funny
facial expressions.

♪ It's M to the B,
it's M to the B ♪

♪ ♪

She used that
to launch a pop star career.

I mean, she's had several
huge hit songs now.

Somebody like Lil Nas X
is also a good example,

somebody that really
leveraged the internet

to promote his own career.

♪ Oh, I'm gonna ride
'til I can't no more ♪

TikTok defines "Top 40."

If you go
to the Trending List

on Spotify,
the most viral hits,

it's all TikTok songs,
and it is a really crazy mix.

We saw Fleetwood Mac "Dreams",
you know, resurged,

because of a viral video.

♪ It's only right ♪

♪ That you should
play the way... ♪

The whole media
ecosystem has migrated

towards this
personality-driven

form of entertainment,
so often people think,

"Oh, I'm on Content Creators,
right?

That's some teenager
that's dancing".

No! Online influence
is influence.

And if you can make
an impact online,

you have the ability
to reshape the world.

I started realising
TikTok had power.

Even if it was for a comedy
or makeup.

Whatever I was posting,
people wanted to watch it.

And I was, like,
"Okay,

so anything's possible
on this app."

♪ ♪

Anyone can basically go viral
on this app.

♪ ♪

After joining TikTok,
I decided, like,

"Maybe I wanna make more
political-savvy videos,

and I got more--more views
on that.

Hi, if you, um, actually
think all lives matter,

I want you to speak up
about the kids in cages

at the border,
I want you to speak up

about the kids dying
in the Middle East.

I want you to speak out
about the child...

I first read about the Uyghurs
through social media

since I do follow
Muslim pages,

and try to keep up
with my community.

Across the Northwestern

province of Xinjiang,
an estimated one million

Chinese Muslims have vanished
into a vast network

of detention centres
that targets Uyghur Muslims.

I saw someone post a picture
of these Uyghurs,

Uyghur prisoners,

and when I did more research,
I found out

that this genocide
is happening in front of us,

and no one is
speaking about it.

♪ Okay, okay... ♪

It says, "News outlets
when innocent Muslims

"are getting murdered
every day

in the Middle East
and in China."

The next day,
after I posted that video,

I--I looked at my feed,

and I saw where
the post used to be,

it was no longer the image
of my face on there.

It was just
a black little box.

When I clicked on it,
it just would say,

"Video unavailable."

I was shocked at that time,
but once I found out

that TikTok is
a Beijing-owned app,

I was no longer shocked.

I found out how TikTok's
basically using our data,

using our information,

and using it
for their own benefit.

TikTok is a Beijing-owned app.

It has censored videos
that are against the CCP.

I don't know about you, guys,
but I wanna know

what TikTok's doing
with our information.

AI is--is hungry for data,

so the more data you have,

the more accurate
the AI becomes,

so in the age of AI,
uh, data's the new oil,

and China is
the new Saudi Arabia.

Your data is an asset
to a lot of companies.

Google and Amazon
and Facebook are so big,

and they have so much money
because they have

all of your data.

And there's a whole secondary
market for data,

called "Data Brokers."

And they're gathering
all of this data,

and they're selling it
to each other,

and it's really no different
than the stock market.

If a company can start
gathering that data,

thousands of points of data
a day,

from the time someone's five
until the time they're 18,

those companies,
when they sell that data,

they have a profile
that knows a child

way better
than a parent would.

And that is extremely valuable
to advertisers,

and to people who want
to persuade you

to do something you might
otherwise not want to do.

If social media is determining
and tracking you

in different ways,
and--and telling you

what your dreams
are going to be,

based on the ads
you're getting,

that impacts the kid's brain
and it impacts their goals.

There's a lot of harms
happening with these companies

that are--are based
in Northern California.

What's different
about TikTok is,

where is this data going?

TikTok is reportedly

under federal investigation.

The US Government
reportedly launching

a national security review
of the company's

data collection,
and censorship practices,

amid concerns that users
personal data

could be accessible
to foreign governments.

there's very little
transparency,

just because a tech company
says something...

and I'm not just
talking about TikTok.

We don't have to take the tech
company at its word.

And I think Facebook
is somewhat scared

of the quick rise of TikTok,
because all that data

that Facebook was getting
is now going to TikTok.

The Chinese, one of the few
markets where Facebook

is unavailable right now,
because of government censors...

While Facebook CEO,
Mark Zuckerberg,

appears to be trying bit by bit
to reenter the world's

largest internet population,
China.

Facebook was probably

the most aggressive
social media company

to try to get
into China,

because social media in China
had been blocked

for a number of years.

♪ ♪

Mark Zuckerberg is trying
to find a way

that they could exist
somehow in China.

And so he learned Mandarin.

He went to a number
of conferences,

where he could put himself
in front of Xi Jinping,

and speak
to Xi Jinping directly.

And he really was aggressive
in saying, you know,

"This is a huge market.

"How can we be
this global connector

for the world and not have
China be part of it?"

But it became clear to him
in the last few years

that it's not going to work.

And so he completely changed,
he completely had a 180

and he went,
uh, on the offensive.

A decade ago, almost all
of the major internet platforms

were American.

Today, six of the top ten
are Chinese.

He realised that,
"If I can't win over

"the Chinese market, then I'm
gonna make it harder for them

to win over my market
in the US."

Mark Zuckerberg
has reportedly called TikTok

"A threat to democracy."

What the Facebook CEO
failed to mention

is that he tried to purchase
TikTok's predecesor,

Zuckerberg's clearly
very concerned about TikTok,

because it's the most genuine
new competition

he's received for a long time.

I remember when Facebook was
the number one place on Earth.

My grandmother
doesn't even use Facebook.

She's too cool.

No, I'm kidding.

I posted a prank on my page,

and it has like
three million views right now.

- Oh!
- You know what?

Uh-huh.

Come here.
Yeah, yeah. Mm...

I think it's all
about how creative you are.

I mean, that's what TikTok
has taught me.

Eh!

- That was good.
- I like that one.

Content's easy
with you, Merrick.

My name is Merrick Hanna.
I am 16 years old.

When people think
of influencers...

I think they think
it's very leisurely. It's not.

- It's fast.
- Is that how it goes?

- Yeah, it's that fast.
- Why is it so fast?

- 'Cause it loops.
- Ah.

Yeah, so it seems like it's
longer when you watch it.

I don't think it needs
to be quite as fast

as you're suggesting.

Try to make it longer,
you're rushing so much.

To manage Merrick's career
at this point,

is definitely a full time job,
on top of my full time job.

Reading all the emails for him,
reading the contracts,

reading offers, replying,
the back and forth...

My dad helps a lot
with finding ideas,

because that
is a big part of it.

He'll find a trend
that he thinks I can do,

he'll show it to me,
and I'll be like,

"All right,
I know how to do it."

Hit, hit, hit.
Now push back.

Even though it may not
seem like it,

he does a lot of the work.

I--I don't sleep quite as much
as I used to.

It's like a gold rush.

Brands wisely
are now seeing

that you can
pinpoint an audience

better, probably,
through social media,

and TikTok especially,

than a lot of traditional
means of advertising,

and then, there's a lot
of people who's trying

to take advantage
of the gold rush,

who just shouldn't be,
who are incompetent,

but a lot of the influencers
are young and inexperienced,

- and don't know better.
- Right.

I think that having a parent
filter social media messages

is critical
parent involvement,

if you wanna keep an eye

- on your child--
- It's very important.

Yeah.

♪ Inferno ♪

♪ Baby, I'm the reason
why bad's so fun ♪

"A third
of TikTok's US users

may be 14 or under,
raising safety questions."

is now called TikTok,
has agreed to pay

millions of dollars in fines
for illegally collecting

personal information
from children.

♪ ♪

Hey, Carter.

These companies
are preying on children.

TikTok is amassing
a profile on them,

so that they can be
targeted by advertisers.

They can push ideas
to that child,

and that is dangerous.

♪ ♪

One of the unique features
of TikTok

is that a child
could post a video,

uh, dancing and having fun,
uh, and there's a feature

on it called "Duets",
where you have children

posting their own videos
and then you just have

these older men
staring at them.

♪ Good morning, beautiful ♪

♪ How was your night? ♪

While these older men
doing... you know,

just part of "I wanna be
in a duet with you."

We have one where the girl
went to kiss her camera

at the same time one of these
older men kisses his camera,

so it looks like you're having
an older man making out

with-with a young girl.

These people
are seeing your children.

And they could contact them
through the TikTok app.

There were child predators
before social media,

but they didn't have
direct access

to your child's inbox.

♪ Walk up in dat bit'
too clean, I' froze ♪

♪ They don’t fight you
where I' from ♪

♪ Like the beat,
I keep a drum ♪

♪ You ain't got dough,
lil' boy ♪

I'm involved in working
on litigation

against TikTok, and my son
is up in his bedroom,

you know, doing livestream
on TikTok, it turned out.

So, like, the work I do,
is that--is that ever

on the back of your mind,
like, "I'm using all these apps,

"and my dad has these lawsuits
against these companies

for data
and protecting people..."

Like, do you think
about that?

No. I just think about it
'cause you come home

and tell me
about all that stuff,

and then I'm like,
technology is like someone

my age is, like,
so essential to everything

I do that it's, like,
I kind of have to live

with the fact that there's gonna
be people that are profiting

off my data, and I have
no real recourse for that.

What's more concerning
is, like, the--the accuracy

of the algorithm, like,
I could be talking

about a movie
and then later that day,

that movie, like, shows up
on my feed.

And you're just talking
randomly to somebody

- about the movie?
- That happens, like...

way more often
than I'm comfortable with.

And that
doesn't freak you out?

Oh, it does, to some degree,
but, like, I guess

I'm used to it
at this point,

like it happens
so much.

♪ ♪

I am on the frontlines

of fighting privacy battles
for children.

And my kids know
that's what I do,

but they're on the app,

so it's a fight you fight,
but it's a difficult fight

to win with your kids.

You can only do so much,
and these companies know that.

If there's no regulation of it,
you, as a parent,

you don't have any control

over what's being pushed
to these kids.

♪ ♪

Gen-Z is a unique generation.

To be a digital native
is to be someone

who doesn't know a world
without the internet.

Teenagers are in a really
sensitive point

in their development,

both in terms of how
their brains are rewiring,

and in terms of how they're
making sense of themselves

and their place in the world.

What ends up happening
is that the algorithms

themselves end up shaping
the development

of teenagers on these apps,

in ways that we don't
understand at all.

With any recommendation
algorithm, you run the risk

of individuals who look
similar to each other,

in terms of their activity,
getting pushed closer

and closer and closer together
in terms of content

that they're being recommended,

and whatever information
is gonna confirm

your preexisting beliefs.

♪ ♪

By not allowing people
from diverse perspectives

to come into contact
with each other...

it lessens their ability
for empathy.

The algorithms are
reinforcing social disparities.

It's not just TikTok.

It is the technology
that TikTok relies on,

but recommendation algorithms
have infiltrated

all aspects of our society.

♪ ♪

Humans are relying
on recommendation systems

to tell them
what decisions to make.

And they are determining
our futures moment by moment,

in ways that we have
very little control.

If we fail to regulate
social media

and the impact that it's
having on this generation,

we're gonna see a lot
of marginalised teenagers

experiencing harms
that none of us

had the experience
and that none of us

are prepared
to help them navigate.

♪ ♪

I've been
in the spotlight

since I was 16.

And it is exhausting.

There's definitely
this tension, uh, always

between produce,
produce, produce,

stay relevant,

and produce things
that you're going to be

proud of in ten years,

and they don't always
go together.

They can't.

And... I think it leads me
to question now,

"Am I doing the right thing?

Did I make
the right choices?"

♪ ♪

I was raised
by a single mom,

and I grew up in a household
that, like many,

couldn't afford
the basics.

Probably the hardest time
was when my mom started

to decline
into substance abuse.

♪ ♪

When I was 15, I walked out
of my mom's house,

because I couldn't get
what I needed there.

And so, for me,
that looked

like living
at a friend's house,

until I graduated
and moved to college.

I was seeing
a therapist at Columbia

for the first time ever,
and I, like,

went into her office
and I was shaking

and crying
and she couldn't understand,

and then she was telling me,
"You know,

why don't you just delete
your social media?"

I was like, "What you
don't understand

"is that I can't delete
these accounts,

"because they are what
keeps me financially stable.

"I pay all of my own bills,

and then, additionally,
I pay my mom's bills."

And monetising
on social media's given me

the opportunity to do that."

When I'm being abused
or harassed online,

it's almost impossible
for me to step away.

And it's kind of like
an abusive relationship

in that regard.

I have to open myself up
to this hate,

because this is what creates
financial stability for me.

What starts out as just
a place to be creative,

and express yourself,

becomes this rat race
for attention.

And this need
to constantly chase

a like count,
follow accounts,

and view counts.

A need to constantly perform

in a way that can really
break people down.

Social media influencer
was the fourth highest

aspiration among
elementary school students.

On the outside,
the life of influencers

looks really fun
and glamorous.

On the inside,
a lot of those influencers,

in addition to getting
some external validation,

they're getting
a lot of harassment and hate.

They have to perform
happiness all of the time.

Many of them are struggling
with depression,

anxiety, burnout,

and that is having
very real-world consequences.

So that algorithm that's
always trying to figure out

what the hottest trends are,

is constantly lifting
something up

to the stratosphere,
and then taking it

back down again.

To me, this is bigger
than TikTok.

It's about who in our society
gets heard,

and what you have to do
in our society to get heard.

♪ ♪

After my first video
about the Uyghurs

was taken down, I knew I had
to disguise my video,

so I grabbed
my pink eyelash curler,

and I started curling
my lashes.

This is the one
that started it all.

Hi, guys,
I'm gonna teach you, guys,

how to get long lashes,

so the first thing
you need to do

is grab your lash curler,
curl your lashes, obviously,

then you're gonna
put them down

and use your phone
that you're using right now

to search up
what's happening in China,

how they're getting
concentration camps,

throwing innocent Muslims
in there,

separating their families
from each other,

kidnapping them,
murdering them,

raping them,
forcing them...

I spoke about that in just,
like, 40 seconds,

and I continued on doing
the eyelash tutorial.

...this is another Holocaust,

yet no one is talking
about it.

Please, be aware.
Please, spread awareness.

And... yeah, so you can grab
your lash curler again...

It reached millions,
it reached millions, and...

people were...

People were shocked
in the comments.

You popped up in my "For You"
page and I was like,

"Oh, my God, that's Feroza.

I was, like,
"I sent this to her,"

and I was like, "Why are you
on my 'For You' page?

And why do you have, like, so
many likes?" It was like crazy.

I had to tell my mom
right after that.

I was like, "Ugh, people
are sending it now.

I should tell my mom
I have TikTok."

My mom, like,
we were watching the news,

and she's like,
"Is that Feroza?"

I was like, "Oh, my Gosh.

Yes, it's my friend".

♪ ♪

A 40-second video
going viral in just one day.

That's, like, the power
that TikTok holds.

So I decided to post
two more videos, uh,

the following two days,
to just post more information

on how to help.

Hey, guys, you wanted
a second part to the video

on how to get longer lashes,
so here it is.

And, by the way,
I say that so TikTok

doesn't take down my videos.

I don't think TikTok noticed
what I posted at first,

and then the following day,

it was like a Monday,
I wake up at 5:00 a.m.

for school, and I go on TikTok
to see how many views

the next two videos got,

and I see that I can't even
go on TikTok.

My--my account's suspended.

"Your account is
temporarily suspended

because it goes against
community guidelines."

Nothing from my posts
violates community guidelines.

I show nothing of hate speech,
I show no profanity,

everything I spoke
about was factual evidence.

My first thought after seeing
this black screen

on my phone was, "I'm not
letting them silence me."

I--I quickly made
a Twitter account.

I quickly posted on Instagram
that, "Hey, I was silenced

for speaking up",

and I'm not gonna let them
get away with that.

And I asked people
to continue sharing the video.

I'm so grateful
that people heard me

saying that my voice
was taken away.

17-year-old Feroza Aziz...

Joining us now
is Feroza Aziz...

In less than a few
days, I was on Al-Jazeera,

BBC, CNN...

More than 1.5 million people
watched it just on TikTok.

What kind of responses
have you had?

Just from regular people...

Half of them is positive,
and the other half

is, "Well, I don't know
this is happening.

"Why am I hearing this
on TikTok

and why not on the news?"

I did, uhm, feel
a little bit upset, though,

because I thought, as if
more attention was brought

to me being silenced
than to what I was actually

speaking about.

I remember seeing
headlines saying,

"Oh, Beijing-owned app
takes down video."

And not, "Oh, like, there's
a Uyghur genocide happening."

I felt very overwhelmed
with the news coverage.

One of my idols--
I have, like, her picture

on my wall, mm, AOC retweeted
an article of me.

♪ ♪

I didn't expect, uhm,
politicians from China

to even comment on it.

China's Prime Ministry
said it had no specifics

of this case.

You saying the content
is still on the TikTok account?

I'm not aware
of the situation.

How could I know
what's happening

on the account
of one individual?

I thought I had
the freedom of speech,

but I guess... under TikTok
that's not possible

for me to have that right.

♪ ♪

Content
moderation is a process

of determining
what's appropriate

and what's not
appropriate online.

One of the natural tensions
becomes if you have

a company but it's
all throughout the globe,

do you adjust to the cultural
norms of another country?

And a lot of people,
when on Facebook or TikTok

or Instagram, they talk
about it by using concepts

like freedom of speech,

because all throughout society,
specifically American society,

we have debated.

What's appropriate?
How you balance

individual autonomy
and expression

with the societal impact?

That used to reside
in governmental bodies.

♪ ♪

With social media,
the power

of determining speech

has been far
too consolidated.

Major tech companies...
if they have the power

of deciding what's okay
and what's not okay

with what I say,
if they have the power

to deplatform.

That puts a tremendous
level of power

in an unelected official.

That's antidemocratic.

♪ ♪

I mean, the think
about TikTok is

it's, so it's--it's
Chinese-owned,

or just that, owners,
they don't control it.

In fact, TikTok takes
a much, much stronger attitude

against the sort
of content that...

well, that
the Chinese government

wouldn't like to see
on a social media app.

There's no orders coming down
from up high,

it's just the understanding
that you will do what Beijing

wants and you'll try
and guess what they want

and do it
without being asked.

♪ ♪

You know, I might--I might
go livestream

on Duoyin a little bit.

That's what's high on Duoyin.

But...

There's one problem,
'cause all the restrictions

of my tattoos.

They might shut me down.

Here we go.

We're live!

Tattoos? No.

And so the piercing? No.

Ah! Sorry, sorry.

Did you see that?

Because I have tattoos,
I can't--I can't go livestream.

That's--that's really messed up.
You know?

Yeah, on Duoyin
you have to watch

everything that you say.

Just one word...
one frame

could set your whole video off.

For the first time in history,
a person can write something

or say something
and have it reach

a large segment of the world.

So this brings up the topic
of censorship,

which is really tricky.

The internet allows
for the fastest spread of ideas

in the history of the world.

China with
the great firewall

and with government moderation
has taken a very active hand

in controlling what topics
are discussed,

what ideas are acceptable
to discuss on the internet.

We've never had to grapple
with questions around censorship

and in an era where
so many people have

a global megaphone now
in their hands.

♪ ♪

It was back in late December
when Dr. Li Wenliang

first warned friends
on WeChat

about a SARS-like
disease going around.

Li sent a group message
saying that a test result

from a patient quarantined
at the hospital

where he worked showed
a patient had a coronavirus,

but hours after being sent,
Wuhan City health officials

tracked Li down,

questioning where he got
the information.

Dr. Li sounded the alarm early
in the COVID-19 outbreak.

He soon faced
government intimidation,

and then contracted
the virus.

When he passed away,

I was among
many Chinese médecins

who expressed grief
and outrage

at the events,

only to have
my account deleted.

I felt guilt
more than anger.

At the time, I was
a tech worker at ByteDance,

where I helped develop tools
and platforms

for content moderation.

In other words,
I had helped build a system

that censored accounts
like mine.

♪ ♪

The technologies we created
supported the entire company's

content moderation,
including Duoyin at home,

and its international
equivalent, TikTok.

♪ ♪

There was a long,
constantly updated list

of sensitive words,
dates and names.

If a user mentioned
a sensitive term,

they would shut down the
ongoing livestream session

and even suspend
or delete their account.

♪ ♪

Many of my colleagues
felt uneasy

about what we were doing,

but we all felt that
there was nothing we can do.

♪ ♪

Dr. Li warned
his colleagues and friends

about an unknown virus.

He was punished for that.

Just imagine,
had any social media platform

been able to reject
the government's

censorship directives,
perhaps millions of lives

would have been saved today.

♪ ♪

TikTok faces
government investigation

in over seven countries,

all citing concerns
over national security

and content moderation.

♪ ♪

In 2019, we had someone
contact us,

claiming to have internal
information and access

to internal TikTok
moderation guidelines.

And I don't think we realised,
at the time,

how big the story would get.

What we saw was that TikTok
was very explicit

about what it wanted to have
on the platform,

and what it didn't want
to show on the platform.

♪ ♪

TikTok rarely deletes content.

They don't have to.

They can just hide it.

♪ ♪

The guidelines were explicitly
instructing moderators

to deal with people who are
LGBTQ or had disabilities

or for whatever reason
TikTok felt

were vulnerable to bullying
by hiding their content.

So it was in Mandarin,

and underneath
a fairly awkward

English translation,

so it says subjects
who is susceptible to bullying

or harassment, based on their
physical or mental condition.

Example, facial disfigurement,

autism,
Down syndrome,

disabled people or people

with some facial
problems, etc.

Content of subjects likely
to incite cyberbullying

will be allowed,
but marked with risk tag 4.

Basically, and like...
different levels

of what we call
"algorithmic punishment"

or "algorithmic visibility,"

so they were put in a category
called "Risk 4,"

which means that as soon
as their videos

would reach a certain threshold
of views,

they would automatically also be
taken from the "For You" feed.

♪ ♪

Later on,
other leaks surfaced.

I actually have the ugly
content policy

right in front of me,

So... crazy to read this.

"Abnormal body shape,
chubby,

"ugly facial looks,

"not limited
to 'disformatted' face,

"fangs, lack of front teeth,

senior people
with too many wrinkles..."

And it just goes
on and on, right?

In a statement, TikTok said,

"Earlier, we took
a blunt approach

"to minimising conflict
on the platform...

"Today we use local content
moderation policies.

"We want TikTok to be a space
where everyone can safely

and freely
express themselves."

It's just a lot of the "move
fast and break things"

attitude that we've seen

from other
Silicon Valley companies.

It's not like only TikTok
was doing these things.

Obviously, the representation
that we see in media

is not an accurate picture
of society,

but I think there is
a difference

that, you know, no TV station,
nor does Hollywood

pretends to be open access
to everybody,

whereas this is a promise

that social media
platforms make.

♪ ♪

Am I the only one
that has noticed

that black creators get
least favorite body algorithm?

How is it that my followers
are not seeing my video?

What's up
with that algorithm?

I've had some of my TikTok
videos get zero views,

and I've been shadowbanned.

Shadowbanning
on TikTok is just when

something in the algorithm

that just kind
of shuts you out completely.

They just like find a way
to make it

so nobody sees
any of your content.

I am an apprenticing
ocularist,

an artist who works
in the medical field, uh,

making prosthetic eyes.

TikTok's algorithm is very good.

You know, you can
create an account

and within a couple of hours
or a couple of days

that algorithm
knows who you are.

You know?

So for that same algorithm
to kind of just...

rip the rug out from thousands
of Black creators,

it kind of pulls you back
for a second.

We know the history

that this nation
has with Black people.

We know the savagery
that they had to endure

because of colonisers,

and the savagery that
they still have to endure...

I got on, and I had made
a video talking

about how my "For You" page
was only of white creators

and by that point,
I would say I had...

150 to 200,000 followers.

And so I had a video sitting,
that I've published

for three hours,
and it said zero views.

That was the first time
where I was, like,

this is blatant shadowbanning.

Nobody's seeing us
'cause they're ensuring

that nobody can.

Tech troubles.

TikTok says a technical glitch
is making it appear

as if posts with the hashtag

and"

The video platform says

it's dealing
with a display issue

adding that videos
featuring those tags

have amassed more
than two billion views.

The moment you go
to use a tag on TikTok,

it'll tell you how many views,
have been on that tag.

And you go to write
"black lives matter",

and it says zero
or, you know,"

"georgefloyd,"
"ahmaudarbery," anything.

It would tell you zero.

TikTok said
in a statement,

which reads in part, "First,
to our Black community:

We want to..."

"Last week,
a technical glitch made it

"temporarily appear as if posts
uploaded using

"and

"We understand
that many assumed

"it's bugged to be
an intentional act

"to suppress experiences
and invalidate the emotions

"felt by the Black community,

and we know
we have work to do

to regain
and repair that trust."

Kind of like the normal
check points

that people go through.

"We're growing,
we're learning,

we're trying to do better."

I would love to believe
that it was a technical glitch.

'Cause you're like,
"That's absolutely possible.

100%," but it's
so oddly specific

that I can't attribute that
to just being a glitch.

TikTok has said
that their content moderation

has changed.

Some of what you see on there
backs that up.

The sense that you see
a lot of activism there.

You saw Black Lives
Matter content,

eventually be
up on there.

But it's constantly changing,
it's a constant black box.

We have no idea what's going
into any of these algorithms.

And there's zero transparency.

ByteDance,
the Beijing-based

owner of TikTok,
apologised for the suspension,

blaming a human
moderation error.

And TikTok says it doesn't
apply Chinese moderation

principles to its product
outside of mainland China.

After a few days,
TikTok gave my account back.

People don't seem
to understand

what it feels like to have
someone try to take away

your voice, and then
they give it back to you.

It's my voice,
and them deciding

to give me back
my account

after taking it away.
It was as if...

they could control
what I could say

and what I could do,

and it's just disgusting
to see an app do that.

'Til this day,
my classmates will post

on my social media accounts,

leaving hate comments.

I can delete the comments,
but I'm gonna go to class

the next day, and I'm gonna
sit next to the person

who hates my guts,
for just speaking on issues

I believe
must be spoken about.

When you're so invested on
apps like TikTok,

when something bad happens
on social media,

your life is torn apart.

♪ ♪

Story time. We all worked
on the Kamala Harris campaign,

in the presidential primary.

And this is your sign to get
a tattoo with your work besties.

For the people.

I was 19 years old

when I started
on the Kamala Harris campaign.

I withdrew
my sophomore year at Columbia.

And it was a huge move.

I think that our perspective
as young people

is what led us to think
TikTok is important.

There's a lot
of young people there.

We were the first campaign
that was putting content

on TikTok directly.

I feel like we have to take
a moment for this... this.

Oh, thank you.

Oh. Yes.

All of Yessica's iconic shots.

So good.

I mean, you pioneered
vertical video.

I--I love that shot
in the rain.

She was booging it down.

That one was everywhere.
I love that.

I just remember, like,
all those airplane videos

really making the rounds
on TikTok.

Absolutely.

They were
showing up everywhere.

And it was interesting
to see the progression.

Like, when different candidates
started to have, like,

their official TikToks
and what kind of content

did they make on TikTok.

I think we felt like
we were kind of starting

to hit our stride on TikTok,

and then we, like,
had to stop.

That email, that dreadful,
dreadful email we got.

The dark day
when we were told

that we couldn't be
on TikTok anymore.

When I get
this email that,

because of security reasons,
we were all being asked

to delete TikTok on government
and military phones...

That was a sad email.
That was a tough one.

TikTok ownership
by a Chinese parent company

subject to Chinese
surveillance law

has made the app's
popularity problematic,

causing concerns
from the US Army,

the Navy, the TSA,
the DNC, the RNC,

and the Biden campaign,

all banning TikTok
from their phones.

For many young soldiers
in the military

who were using TikTok,
they were in all sorts

of US military bases
around the world,

and said they would go

and they would do
pushup contests.

They would, you know,
do tours of the bases, then...

You know, they were really
showing some pretty...

top secret assets
to anyone in the world

wanting to see them,

and this was
at a moment where...

people were
not taking TikTok seriously.

But what they realised was
this silly little kids app

was collecting a ton
of information

on GPS, on location,
of all these soldiers,

and all of that,
in the end,

was heading back
into a Chinese company.

♪ It took too long,
it took too long ♪

♪ It took too long
for you to call back ♪

♪ And normally I would
just forget that... ♪

From a nation state's
perspective,

well, data is the new oil.

If I can understand
the connections between people,

I can start to target
my misinformation,

so that one person is likely
to take actions

in the real world,
like vote.

So the data
that TikTok collects

is on par with what
other social media companies

are collecting.

So, the question really becomes,
"Why is TikTok being picked on?"

Xenophobia should certainly
be considered a part,

as part of this, we've seen
a rise in hate crimes

against Asian-Americans,
and so I think,

being very clear
about the differences,

uh, of the practices
of a government

versus the people
that happen to reside

inside of that nation state.

After all, I don't agree
with 100% of the things

our nation does.

♪ I'm singing Trump 2020 ♪

♪ Trump 2020 ♪

♪ Trump 2020,
Trump 2020 ♪

♪ ♪

When I first found
Gen-Z comedians online,

it was so inspiring to me
as a comedian,

in seeing how easy it is
to build traction

on apps like TikTok.

One of my friends
had posted

that Donald Trump's
Tulsa rally

had free tickets,
and my first thought

was just how easy is it
to get a ticket.

Guys, Donald Trump
is having a rally.

All you had to do
is give your phone number

and so I got two tickets,
but I totally forgot

that I had to pick
every individual piece

of lint off of my floor,

and then sort them by size,
so I can't...

make it for Friday.

I had realised
the potential of this.

You should be really careful
going to do this, you know.

You don't want
a bunch of empty seats.

And when I posted it,
I didn't think much of it...

♪ ♪

...but in two days
it just blew up.

Oh, my God! I just registered
for Trump's rally,

and I'm so excited to not go.

Mm-hmm.

We've never had an empty seat.

And we certainly
won't in Oklahoma.

TikTok users may well be

President Trump's
latest adversary,

after thousands of people
who've gotten tickets online

didn't show up,

thanks to a secret campaign
on TikTok.

We've gotten over
a million tickets sold

and only 6,000 people showed up.

President Trump was frustrated
and angry.

TikTok is definitely
giving teenagers new power.

I think it's unbelievable
that I was able to prank

an American President.

Trump nemesis,
New York Congresswoman

Alexandria Ocasio Cortez,
gloated.

As soon as that rally happened,

that's when the rhetoric
on TikTok rose to a level

that we hadn't seen before.

The real China hawks
in his Administration

were ready to go after this
company, and then were kind

of waiting for the moment,
and this rally

and the pandemic
came together

to give them
that moment that they needed.

The Pentagon,
the Department of State,

the Department
of Homeland Security,

and the TSA have all banned
their employees

and service members

from using TikTok
on government devices,

and we know that it's
a national security risk.

People really pounced
on this moment,

not only the China hawks
and the US government,

but also the tech companies,
particularly Facebook.

Do you believe
that the Chinese government

steals technology
from US companies?

Uh, Congressman,
I think it's well documented

that the Chinese government
steals technology

from American companies.

And so Mark Zuckerberg
saw this as a moment

and Facebook pounced
on this moment,

where TikTok was getting
under pressure,

and he said, "I'm gonna
turn this up even more."

And so they started
making their case

to the different people
in Congress

who were really
going after Facebook,

and they were saying,
"You know what?

"You're looking at us
as the Boogeyman,

"but we're just a distraction,

"from the real problem,

"which are the Chinese
tech companies,

"and those are the companies

that you should be
looking at."

Now the "Wall Street Journal"
is reporting that...

Not only did
Mark Zuckerberg publicly

go against TikTok,

he lobbied behind the scenes
against the company,

in a private dinner
with the President.

There was a moment
during the pandemic

where cases were going up,

we didn't have a vaccine,

Donald Trump's campaign
wasn't doing so well,

and so Donald Trump started
really hammering this idea home

that we need to blame China
for the Coronavirus,

and this pandemic.

"Kung-flu."

The Chinese virus.

Why do you keep
using this?

- Because it comes from China.
- Sounds racist.

It's not racist at all.
No.

Not at all.
It comes from China.

Trump loved that.
He wanted to play to that,

because it became this kind
of rallying cry in the US

to go after China,

and TikTok kind of became, um,
this symbol of China

at that moment.

There have been
more than 2,500 incidents

of anti-Asian hate crimes.

It's not just
in the US,

Asians around the world
have reported discrimination

linked to Coronavirus.

Asian hate, it didn't
just started now.

It was always there.

It was
always there.

Suddenly,
because of the pandemic,

TikTok became this symbol
of this fight

between the US and China,
and a way for Donald Trump

to kind of deflect blame.

It all started
last Friday,

when President Trump
send shockwaves

through social media
after making this comment.

We're looking at TikTok.

We may be banning TikTok.

The President
threatened to block

the popular video app,

citing national
security concerns.

No. We're--we're not
a national security threat.

And we've said that time
and again,

we have very strict
data access and controls.

TikTok has said,

"American user data is stored
in the US,

"and backed up in Singapore,

not in China."

We are at a time when we're
seeing a very much...

a geopolitical tension,
as you know,

between the US and China,

and we are
in the middle of that.

In China, there is
this cyber security law

that states, "If we ask you
for information,

then you have
to give it to us."

The 2017 law mandates

that Chinese-owned companies
have to cooperate

with the Communist Party.

And so that's kind
of the heart of the problem.

TikTok can swear up and down
that they've never been asked

to give information,

but that doesn't stop
the Chinese government

from taking information
in the future.

I remember this moment,
where we had the pandemic,

we had Black Lives Matter
protests,

we have wildfires
in California,

like the world feels
like it's falling apart

and the only thing people
on the news are talking about

is this ban of TikTok.

Just the threat alone
has already had a huge impact.

Advertisers have been
hitting pause on campaigns,

worth millions of dollars...

It caused absolute chaos
in the tech industry,

like Apple and Google,

and everyone
was sort of struggling

to get a handle on it,
and thinking,

"Can a president
even do this?"

Yo, what's up, guys?

I'm sure all you guys
heard the news.

TikTok's getting banned.

I'm... going across TikTok,
and all my friends

are saying bye to TikTok

"It's so sad I have
to leave you, guys."

There's another one saying,
"Please follow me

on all my other
social media."

And I was fearing
for my career.

♪ But it's done now ♪

I have five million followers.
How can this get banned?

This is my living,
it's what I do.

And I'm starting a video
petition with

You all mean the world to me.

Thank you for everything.

Thank you for a career.

Thank you for... making all
my beatbox dreams come true.

That was tough.
I...

I thought of a million
different possibilities in my...

Maybe I gotta perform
or maybe I gotta go busk

or something, like,
"What am I gonna do?"

Like, it was definitely tough
for me to see,

because I didn't want
that to happen.

TikTok.

A few days after
the executive order,

we hear that Microsoft
is in deal talks to buy TikTok.

Then we started hearing,
"Okay, well, maybe Oracle

"wants to buy TikTok,

"maybe all these
other companies, you know,

"because if they bought TikTok
then it would no longer

be owned
by a Chinese company,"

and suddenly
that would be okay

for Donald Trump,
and, oh, by the way,

Donald Trump also wanted
to take a finder's fee

to get some money
to the Treasury,

which is probably
the most bizarre plot

of the entire storyline.

♪ ♪

TikTok kept saying,

"We're trying to find a deal,

we're trying
to find a deal,"

but, in the meantime,
nothing was actually happening,

and then the Chinese government
stepped in.

Tonight, state media have been
lashing out, once again,

saying that Beijing would,
quote, undoubtedly prepare

proportional countermeasures

for what it says could become
piracy and looting

by United States.

All of a sudden, came this law
that banned the export

or sale of any
artificial intelligence

from China.

ByteDance and TikTok
at its core

is an AI company.

And that was really
what stopped the discussion.

And could prevent
the sale of TikTok.

TikTok is one of the opening
salvos in an emerging battle

of technology between
the world's two largest

and most dynamic economies.

A new tech cold war.

And then, the November
US Presidential Elections

started heating up,
and the story of TikTok

became the biggest deal
of the century

that never actually
ended up happening,

because Donald Trump
lost the Presidency,

Biden took over

and we never revisited it.

Well, it turns out the clock
won't stop for TikTok.

President Biden has signed
a new executive order,

voiding the Trump-era decision
seeking to ban

the social media app.

Everybody, calm down.
Calm down.

TikTok is not getting banned.

I just love how Trump
tried to ban TikTok.

And now TikTok
has banned Trump.

TikTok is just one app
in what is going to be

a long line of applications

and new ways of communicating.

And so acknowledging
our own humanity in this.

On the internet, we treat
others like they're disposable,

but, and you know,
nobody is disposable.

Okay, mama, what do you think
of my haircut?

- I love it.
- You love it?

My mom's now been sober

for a little more
than four years.

And now we have
a really great relationship.

I've actively worked...
to remind myself

that she's someone
who's capable of change.

♪ ♪

As a digital native,

it's exhausting to grow up
and make mistakes

in front of everyone.

And not just the people
who are looking at me right now,

but inevitably, the people who
are looking at me in five years,

ten years...

The things you put
on the internet are forever.

But...
Hey! How's it going?

I founded GenZ Girl Gang

because social media
can be used

as a community building tool.

As my generation gets older,

and we live
more life documented,

I hope that--that we
learn to live

with this technology,

and really live
with it, right?

Live full lives with it.

Live our mistakes through it.

That we can all create the space
for one another

to--to change.

The way that old
Hollywood was

is very different
than how new Hollywood is.

TikTok's so, so young that
everything that's happening

is so fresh right now.

We're really gonna see
who shines.

I have a lot of followers.

Like, right now,
I have 54 million,

as of yesterday.

We follow you! Can you take
a picture with my kids?

Oh, my God!

Don't cry.

I'm happy.

- I know. I'm happy too.
- Aw.

No...

You're gonna make me cry.

My boy!

You guys have a great day,
all right?

Thank you!
That was awesome.

To me, I think, fame is
that support you give people

that didn't really have it
before you existed.

- I follow you.
- Aw.

I will follow you
guys back.

I follow you on TikTok.

I just put out
a music video, like--

- Uh-huh, I found it.
- You did? Aw, thank you.

♪ ♪

I want kids to be like,
"I know I can do that too.

I know there's
a chance out there."

I would've never dreamed,
in a million years,

it would happen like this.

TikTok has really changed
my entire life.

And I--I think
if I wanna speak

to anyone out there
that ever has a dream

and think that it's too crazy...

too crazy to accomplish, uh,
you can do it.

You can--you can do anything
that you want.

Sorry.

♪ ♪

It's--it's so, it's so weird
for me, 'cause, like, being

a beatboxer... it was so hard
for me to be accepted.

And...

I'm just really, really glad
I never gave up.

It's graduation day.

I'm definitely nervous,

I'm trying to wear
my Afghan sash

to graduation.

I was told
that I can't wear the sash

because it goes
against dress code.

But I'm sure that no matter
what people say about me,

at the end of the day
I'm proud I'm Afghan

and there's no other
human being like me.

Take a lot.
Just tap a lot.

And if it glitches,
use your phone.

♪ ♪

It feels a little embarrassing
to see, like, my mom

and the whole family, like,
celebrating me graduating,

'cause I'm like, "Ugh, it's
not that big of a deal."

But then I look back at them,
and I'm like...

Honestly, it is, 'cause
I'm the first female

in my family
to graduate high school.

My mother, she went
to elementary school,

but then, once the violence
in Kabul, Afghanistan,

got too much, she had to be
taken out at third grade.

I'm the first anyone
in my family

to even go to college now.

Welcome to graduation.

We're the class of 2021.

♪ ♪

I didn't expect myself
to go viral

and be this activist.

What inspired me to speak up
was seeing those around me

staying silent.

♪ ♪

Feroza Aziz.

I wanna do more in the future
on human rights issues,

and I wanna do more than just
speaking on social media.

I actually wanna
physically help.

♪ ♪

Congratulations.

♪ ♪

Thank you.

TikTok has infiltrated
American culture,

the Hollywood
and entertainment system,

and--and politics, and all
of these different facets

of American life
in--in such a deep way.

There's very legitimate reasons
to think critically

about the impact that this
massive tech conglomerate

is having on America
and it's really important

to think about issues
around data privacy

with all of these
tech platforms.

It's called
the Log Off movement,

and it's a nonprofit
organisation.

It's really been started
by kids,

for ways to promote
healthy ways to exist

on social media.

I'm really inspired
by the Log Off movement,

they're a group
of high school students

from all over the planet.

They're not
just telling people

to spend less time
on the apps.

They're pushing back by talking
to members of Congress,

by talking to people
at the platforms themselves,

to try to change how
these systems are built.

Companies like TikTok
need to be watched,

they need
to be held accountable

the same way that we hold

other institutions
of power accountable.

TikTok has tightened

the privacy measures.

Anybody under 15
will automatically have

a private account.

Federal regulators
have already ordered the app

to disclose how its practices
do effect young people.

Personally, I don't
think it's fair to single out

an individual company
just because it's popular.

Personally, I think it makes
more sense to pass

cohesive laws against
all companies,

so that not only can TikTok
not do some of this,

so neither can Facebook
or Google, or Amazon

or any other companies,
regardless of nationality.

If the story ended today,
I would say, hands down,

TikTok won.

All the Trump ban did
was make TikTok even bigger,

because it caused people
to download the app,

it caused people
to talk about it,

and so all it did
was create more growth

and more revenue
for this Chinese company

that is even bigger in the US
than it was

when Trump first started
going after it.

Now, the story's not over.

♪ Everybody wants
to be somebody ♪

♪ Everybody wants
to be somebody ♪

♪ Everybody...
wants to be somebody ♪

♪ Everybody ♪

♪ To be somebody ♪

♪ Everybody wants
to be somebody ♪

♪ Everybody
wants to be somebody ♪

♪ Everybody wants
to be somebody ♪

♪ Everybody
wants to be somebody ♪

...generations before us
to have the same power

as we do now,
and that's technology.

You have power.

You can create change.

♪ ♪