by Taylor Adams ‘27

Earlier this year TikTok was briefly banned in the United States, before being promptly reinstated 12 hours later through an Executive Order by Donald Trump as one of his first actions after becoming president. Ever since, TikTokers have been concerned about the possibility of the U.S. government’s censorship of the app, despite there being no evidence that the government is monitoring the app.

On January 19, the Supreme Court upheld a law passed by Congress and signed into law by former President Joe Biden, that resulted in TikTok being removed from the app store. The next day, when users opened the app they were prompted with a welcome back message saying that new President Donald Trump’s efforts led to the reinstatement of TikTok. While some celebrated, many became confused about the effects this would have. TikTokers expressed their worry that the U.S. government was changing the algorithm of the app to censor certain types of videos.

After the ban, a belief was sparked that everything on the app was being monitored and censored so that videos protesting Trump wouldn’t be shown on the For You Page. These conspiracy theories mainly came from the fact that certain terms being searched had no results even though when the terms are searched in other countries, results will come up. These terms were mostly related to Trump in a negative way, such as “Trump rigged election” and “fascism.” This made TikTokers anxious, and they began using keywords in videos in hopes of preventing the algorithm from censoring them. The main phrase being used to trick this supposed algorithm into not censoring or removing videos is, “cute winter boots.”

In text overlays and captions are phrases like, “Check out these cute winter boots.” The videos behind the text protest the current Trump administration, such as showing examples of ways to cover your face in a protest. TikTokers also utilize the phrase “Deny, Defend, Depose.” These were words written on bullets in the murder of the United Health Care CEO Brian Robert Thompson. It has become a trend on TikTok to write the phrase on shoes and dollar bills. On top of that, TikTokers are making edits comparing the Trump presidency to The Hunger Games. They are comparing popular fashion to fashion in The Hunger Games and trying to show parallels.

These TikTokers believe that posting edits, writing DDD on shoes and money, and comparing the current state of the country to The Hunger Games will have an impact. They don’t understand that simply posting videos won’t do anything. To have an actual influence they need to get off of TikTok and work towards it in the real world. This has turned protesting into a trend, and it is making teenagers believe they are helping when they aren’t. Instead of spending time engaging in protest, they are sitting in their houses and posting TikToks.

Additionally, a lot of these people are posting without actually being informed on what’s happening in the country. Lots of misinformation is spread through TikTok and TikTokers often will not leave the app to research more and confirm information. Therefore, many are misinformed and freaking out over simple things. They need to spend time educating themselves on current events and how the government works before trying to protest.

While it is true that certain terms are being censored in search, it’s not for the reason they think. Terms related to misinformation are often censored on TikTok, and in the U.S., videos about a rigged election are marked as false information. This is also why the “censorship” sparked around the time of Trump’s election. This created the basis of the concern that TikTokers have been expressing. The U.S. government is not censoring it to limit free speech like TikTokers believe.