With a U.S. ban on TikTok set to come into force on Sunday, what do some of the leading 3D printing influencers on the ByteDance-owned platform think?
In March 2024, a House Committee voted 50-0 to advance a bill prohibiting app stores from providing users with TikTok, a social media app. The unanimous support for a defacto ban was signed into law in April, with US President Joe Biden inking the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act (PAFACA). Effectively, China’s ByteDance received an ultimatum: sell TikTok within the next nine months or watch the app decay.
ByteDance has resisted the forced divestiture and intends to shut down TikTok instead. With a U.S. leadership transition also taking place this weekend, the outgoing Biden has reportedly suggested that the returning President Trump administration will handle enforcement of the ban. PAFACA provides for a three-month grace period. The latest Supreme Court ruling states TikTok must be sold to a U.S. company, or it will be banned on Sunday as planned.
Reasons for banning TikTok stem from concerns about Chinese government access to user data or using the platform to manipulate the 170 million U.S. citizens who use the video-sharing social network. In 2019, both the U.S. Army and Navy, on Pentagon guidance, banned TikTok on government devices. In the UK, a similar restriction for government ministers was created in 2023, joining some U.S. federal agencies.
A ticking clock
Geopolitical machinations may now be on the minds of the TikTok users who initially joined to share videos, form friendships, and establish communities. By demographics, the single largest age bracket on TikTok in the U.S. is teens (around 10–19), making up roughly 25–30% of the platform’s user base.
“The ban of TikTok would restrict my reach”, says Ben Pendergast; better known to his 4.1 million followers as itsboyinspace. He aims to “ignite enthusiasm for STEM projects and introduce people to this engaging and creative hobby that can foster innovation.” Pendergast’s videos have over 80 million likes. Pendergast has a stern warning about the ban’s implications and believes the end of TikTok “is just the beginning of what could result in limiting our reach and our capabilities communicating, our freedoms to engage in constructive discussions about both the positive and negative aspects of society is diminishing our opportunities for personal and societal growth.”
Elegoo is a 3D printer manufacturer that uses the video-sharing network. “TikTok has been one of our fastest-growing platforms, with a nearly 60k increase in followers and over 20 million views last year,” explains Coco Lee, Brand Director at Elegoo.
“The TikTok ban wasn’t unexpected. However, we are a bit disappointed, as we had planned to invest more resources into the platform,” says Lee. “We plan to keep investing in our Elegoo account and focus on creating original content. While TikTok has played an important role, it’s not our only or most critical platform. We also actively create content on other platforms like YouTube. For us, TikTok is primarily a space to showcase our brand, and we haven’t relied heavily on influencer partnerships there. Our strategy is well-rounded, and we’re adaptable to any situation.”
Likewise, Pendergast is also prepared, “I’m already on every platform and plan to continue; the unfortunate truth though is every other platform seems to make things so much more difficult to find a connection; with TikTok, it’s super easy to quickly respond to someone with a video response to help solve problems in this hobby. I fear that limitation will distance me from the community I have built over the years.”
Mike Prior, aka PRIORity-3D agrees, “TikTok is a completely different platform compared to other social media outlets. It creates communities with people and brings people together.” “I’ve grinded so hard to get the following I have, and now to possibly have it stripped away, well, it sucks. I really don’t want to start over,” says Prior, “I’m going to miss the community for sure. No other app is like this, and without it, creating content [is] not as fun, in my opinion.”
The heat is on
Providing a fun user experience and fostering communities are noble goals and not necessarily incongruent with strategies—grounded in technology and psychology—to keep people engaged, whether through social validation, FOMO, or fundamental human needs such as connection. The cost of leaving a platform must be balanced with the loss of the network. “If this ban takes effect, it will be unfortunate as I have made some really good friends using this app. Yes, we will stay in contact, but this app has brought so many people together in the 3D printing community,” says Prior.
How do platforms encourage such communities? One possibility comes from TikTok confirming it “unnaturally” pushes content in a way that is not based on a user’s preference via a “heating” tool. Potentially, such a boosting tool could be used to build niche communities on the platform. For example, perhaps stamp collectors had a large volume of content creators on a rival video platform. Applying the heating tool to a fortunate philatelist can boost views and likes via inclusion in the widely viewed “for you” feed. In turn, this may lure new creators from the stamp community laboring under the misapprehension that they too will be showered with a bonanza of likes by replicating the chosen content of the anointed one.
Critics have categorized the work done by a significant number of content creators who spend time and money making videos but reap little monetary benefit as playbor. Instead, the unpaid workforce provides a nearly endless supply of material for free, while the platform hordes the rewards.
Algorithmeddon: recommendation engines reshape reality
Social Media is a mess, and by no means does ByteDance stand alone when it comes to egregious activities enabled by these platforms. On TikTok, mainstays of journalism sit alongside news influencers who sometimes take the work done by reporters, reformat, and share, often without attribution. “I get most of my news from TikTok. From political news to world news, I find that TikTok makes it more accessible to get this information not only from individuals but from reputable sources like the BBC,” says Jack Light, aka Twin Shepherd Printing.
Recent statistics show 17% of all U.S. adults get news from TikTok. The appeal can be independent voices that report or otherwise illuminate under-represented perspectives. The concern is a lack of formalized safeguards and fact-checking and the potential for spreading misinformation and disinformation. “I’ve seen content reported on TikTok that U.S. news agencies haven’t. I believe a great deal of users are aware of the possibility of the algorithm skewing what content is being shown, but I see this as no different than content control on apps like Facebook,” says Light.
“In my opinion, The United States government sees TikTok as a national security threat not because it is a spy app or malware, but because they cannot control its content,” says Light. Mike Prior adds, “It’s ridiculous to say this is a national security thing because anything you purchase through or from China they have your info. The US would need to completely cut ties and not allow anything from China near the US. It’s, in my opinion, a money grab from the government.”
A plurality of channels to freely exchange information and connect individuals is held as a central tenet of democracy. Defenders of interactive online networks may draw parallels between other older mass communication technologies, suggesting that radio, television, or even the printing press should not be held culpable for the perceived sins of its users. The counterpoint here is that radio, television, and print are not inherently subject to the algorithms of social media and the tendency to amplify certain forms of content via recommendation.
Recommendation algorithms of social media are sometimes held up as justification for lighter regulation of platforms. Yet, these mathematical models can be subverted or bypassed entirely, for example, by TikTok’s heating tool. Algorithmically curated content, be it music, news, or social video, leads to an ever-narrowing experience, according to author Kyle Chayka in his book Filterworld: How Algorithms Flattened Culture.
Another concern cited is a disparity between the content found on ByteDance’s Douyin app, sometimes called the Chinese TikTok, and the version available in the West. While Douyin serves wholesome content, TikTok is the ultra-processed, fluorescent, gas-station cheese puffs.
Whether contested allegations that TikTok’s parent company promoted a biased perspective of China to U.S. users of its defunct news app or spying on reporters will change the opinion of ardent fans remains to be seen.
ByteDance could pocket $50 billion should it choose to sell U.S. operations; leaving such a sum on the table has led some to speculate the value resides not in money but as an intelligence asset. The company has a more prosaic reason for declining: to protect its intellectual property. “I do not blame them one bit for refusing to sell. No company should be forced to sell something to someone. This is a money grab for the government,” says Mike Prior. “This whole thing has nothing to do with a national security thing. It’s all about money, he adds.”
Prior’s opinion is that “Bytedance created an empire, and I feel the government thinks they have a right to it because US citizens are using it and thriving.”
The rationales for using TikTok are as varied and numerous as the reasons for staying off such platforms. “The reality that weighs the heaviest on my heart and mental health is the feeling of impending isolation, says Jack Light. “I don’t just create content for a following. I make content with other creators I have grown relationships with and now consider some of my closest friends. The turbulence of the ban would displace these creators and cut off a vital channel of communication we all have with one another.”
Given the tendency of social media platforms to rise and fall, some content creators have wisely hedged their bets. This is not the case for everyone: “As a content creator, the TikTok ban would basically mean I have to start over on a new platform,” says White. “I do not have the following on other platforms that I have on TikTok, the brand deals I have established are solely due to my TikTok followers, so I will most likely lose most if not all of my affiliated marketing partners.”
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