In
the
short
amount
of
time
between
TikTok
going
dark
and
President
Musk
signing
so
many
Executive
Orders
that
his
medical
staff
are
looking
for
signs
of
carpal
tunnel,
two
things
became
glaringly
apparent.
The
first
was
a
glimpse
at
what
the
rush
to
fill
the
international
power
vacuum
of
America’s
disappearance
would
look
like:
The
second
is
that
if
Congress’s
dire
need
to
protect
American
citizens
from
having
their
data
stolen
was
a
legitimate
concern,
something
had
to
change
in
the
span
of
a
day,
right?
If
any
changes
have
been
made
they’ve
been
on
the
hush,
but
folks
have
noticed
some
pretty
telling
hat
tips
and
changes
to
the
algorithm.
It
started
with
TikTok
glazing
President
Trump:
Once
the
app’s
functionality
was
restored,
people
quickly
noticed
that
things
weren’t
how
they
used
to
be
just
a
day
before:
There
seemed
to
be
a
wave
of
censorship
of
words
and
phrases
dependent
on
the
country
the
user
was
in:
Trump
&
Co.
are
generally
the
first
ones
to
rail
against
the
evils
of
Communism
and
collectivization,
but
Trump’s
approach
to
allowing
TikTok
to
get
around
the
ban
looks
a
lot
like
advocating
for
a
state-run
social
media
platform:
To
be
fair,
Trump’s
language
shifts
from
the
US
would
be
a
50%
partner
with
TikTok
to
floating
the
option
that
the
50%
share
could
be
privately
owned
by
rich
people,
but
you
don’t
have
to
look
further
than
Elon
Musk
—
owner
of
Twitter
and
spearhead
of
the
“Department
Of
Government
Efficiency”
—
to
see
that
the
veil
between
billionaire
ownership
and
state
ownership
isn’t
really
that
thick.
So
what’s
there
to
do
in
the
interim?
Many
Americans
who
made
the
Great
Migration
(can
we
retire
the
phrase
“TikTok
refugee”)
to
Xiaohongshu
are
opting
to
stay
there
rather
than
move
back
to
NewTok,
but
that
solution
will
only
work
so
long
as
Congress
allows
Americans
to
continue
using
foreign
apps.
Americans
can
forgo
TikTok
along
with
Twitter/X
to
take
their
speech
back
to
Facebook,
Instagram,
or
Threads,
but
that’s
not
doing
much
more
than
choosing
which
right-leaning
billionaire
you
want
to
be
doing
the
censorship.
Bluesky
looks
to
be
the
last
bastion,
but
who
knows
how
long
those
walls
will
stand.
There’s
a
mic
drop
moment
in
Iron
Man
2
where
Tony
Stark
proudly
declares
that
he
has
effectively
privatized
world
peace.
Given
how
advanced
his
arms
were,
he
was
right
—
you’d
have
to
either
buy
your
weapons
from
him
or
buy
from
shoddy
imitators
who
dyed
their
meth
to
look
like
his.
Between
the
billionaires
who
own
social
media
and
Donald
Trump’s
pen,
the
state
and
the
right
wing
have
effectively
privatized
our
speech,
shape
our
opinions,
and
regulate
our
dissent.
And
to
think,
all
of
this
happened
on
MLK
Day.
Chris
Williams
became
a
social
media
manager
and
assistant
editor
for
Above
the
Law
in
June
2021.
Prior
to
joining
the
staff,
he
moonlighted
as
a
minor
Memelord™
in
the
Facebook
group Law
School
Memes
for
Edgy
T14s.
He
endured
Missouri
long
enough
to
graduate
from
Washington
University
in
St.
Louis
School
of
Law.
He
is
a
former
boatbuilder
who
cannot
swim, a
published
author
on
critical
race
theory,
philosophy,
and
humor,
and
has
a
love
for
cycling
that
occasionally
annoys
his
peers.
You
can
reach
him
by
email
at [email protected] and
by
tweet
at @WritesForRent.