I'm going to violate my own rules just this once, but as an artist I do sincerely believe I would be a huge spineless hypocrite if I stood back and said nothing. To my small yet personally life changing audience, as the looming yet probably inevitable tiktok ban for those of us in the United States closes in all I can feel is remorse and dread for the absolute catastrophic loss of knowledge this will be. Artists, streamers, educators, many of them owe their entire careers to this app. Hundreds of thousands probably into the millions will lose a source of their income in an already difficult economical time period. Yes there are other means of accessing some of these creators and please go do that! Find them elsewhere, if you love what they do stick with them! But when the time comes, if all the US content put up on that app just evaporates into thin air then nearly a decade of culture, knowledge, art, and community will be lost with it. I've spent the last 2 days downloading every video i've ever liked and favorited over my time on the app, and unfortunately I don't think it will finish in time but I will hang on to what I can. If you're able I strongly urge you to do the same in the name of preservation. I've learned so much from my time on that app that I sincerely doubt I would be the same person without it. It would be silly and easy if I could just boil it down to me being sad about my 300 saved Jayce Talis thirst edits and truly I wish that that's all it was. I could just make a silly joke and move on, but all of the recipes, tutorials, restaurant, product recs, self care, shows, movies, books, fellow streamers, artists, and THE MUSIC I might not have ever seen without it leaves such a mournful pit inside me that there could now be many more things I wont see due to the loss of an algorithm like tiktoks. In my small state in the corner of the country where nothing happens, I'm happy I had a window to the outside, so I could see and broaden my horizons as a human being. I adore seeing how other humans live, behave, learn and find joy in their everyday lives. Yes life will go on, as it always does. The sun will continue to rise and set, we’ll still have to go to work and pay our taxes and maybe something new will come along to replace it, who knows for sure. It seems very dramatic of me to say all of this, but artists are not known for being anything less than complete drama queens, and I would hate for history to try and look back on this period and find a big gaping void because what was here can no longer be accessible in 50-years, our joyous years on this earth during this time reduced to nothing. All of it lost in the pursuit of profits and control. The hill I'm willing to die on is the banning of knowledge and history, and having what I believe to be such an important door closed in all of our faces should worry We the People whether or not you agree with the ban.

I normally never have a strong voice or care to share my opinions, and trust me, I'm scared to do so. So thanks for taking a minute to hear my small scream into the void.