Ballad of the TikTok Ban
Channel: David Rovics
Date: 2023-03-25

The idea that TikTok is less trustworthy with our data or with their algorithms than scandal-ridden platforms like Facebook, Instagram, or YouTube is completely preposterous, based entirely on fantastical, nationalistic and xenophobic notions of the world, its corporations and its billionaires, having nothing to do with how anything actually works.

Lyrics:

Ballad of the TikTok Ban

Debate rages from Brussels to DC  
Which app do the kids like best?
Is it promoting democratic values  
That we all uphold and cherish in the West?
Like freedom, democracy, selling advertisements 
 And getting dictators elected
Like with Cambridge Analytica, 2016  
And how Duterte and Trump were selected

But scandal after scandal doesn't matter 
There's no limit to all we can afford
For any company stacked with former cabinet members
From the White House on their corporate board
Appeasing all the wishes of the Pentagon
Conducting business there on California soil
They may just be in it for the profit  
But to God and country they are loyal

Because Facebook's not a Chinese corporation  
There's no need to ban or block 
It's run by patriotic American billionaires  
Unlike TikTok

Look at a video on YouTube  
Within a few recommendations
You'll be seeing lies on the subject of your choice
Viewing disinformation
Whatever keeps us all glued to the screen  
It's well understood
Whatever lines the pockets of the billionaires  
It must be well and good

Because YouTube's not a Chinese corporation...

Scroll through your feed on Instagram  
As their own studies attest
The more time you spend on the platform  
The more lonely and depressed
But as long as they can use your emotions  
To encourage you to spend and buy
It must be OK, it's the American Way  
Be a patriot and don't ask why

Because Instagram's not a Chinese corporation...

As the billionaires make more billions  
And the tent cities grow and grow
As we look at our phones and see what the billionaires  
Want us to do and want us to know
As we hand off our communications  
To our masters, Sili-con
As long as it's red, white and blue  
Then we know which side it's on

Because it's not a Chinese corporation...