The benefits of switching TikTok off in America.

I wrote this a few days before the TikTok blackout in America.

I like the idea of the Americans being barred from TikTok, not that they don't make engaging content.

Still, they are always the default in any Western network, affording them a higher ratio of views due to networking effects based on sheer numbers.

This gives them better opportunities and also a larger global cultural impact.

As the best social platform, what will TikTok become for us without the default country?

It sounds fun and full of opportunities for those marginalised by the space and time taken up by Yankee voices.

I wrote this a few days after the TikTok blackout in America.

Recently TikTok has undergone some changes, TikTok was switched off in the US for a day or so, and things haven't been the same since.

America has a huge advantage for creators on social platforms where certain network effects benefit them along with being the dominant or default country in the world.

A bit like how there are big advantages to being white in the Western world, not that most people who don't feel those benefits would recognise this as truth, which it is for the most part.

Even the fact that the US is a fairly insular country, not seeing the world past its borders has beneficial effects for US creators, which dominate the web.

The final factor is that most of these apps are built by and for the US means if you are a creator with talent you have a bigger chance of success if you are American, especially if you are a creator in hubs such as California and New York.

These networking effects are real and powerful from an algorithmic perspective and from the perspective of who gets chances to be seen based on those who have made it promote and collab with.

But when Tiktok was cut off from America while still being available to the rest of the world, something magical happened. People's feeds were no longer dominated by American accents and percpectives from all over the world were filling the void, tiktok was international and while we missed our favourite Yank personalities, we got to see other english speakers who had been marginalised by these network effects, and the vibe was calmer, less sensational, a bit more sensible, and more diverse.

People didn't even realise 90% of their feed was being dominated by creators from one country until that country was cut out of the algorithm, hashtags like #worldtok, #eurotok, and #commonwealthtok sprang up and it was a numbers boon for many international creators which were promoted in place of the usual American lineup of faces.

After a day the Yanks were back but the algorithm was either changed because of the reality that the US might press the off button again or the algorythm now had a new bunch of people in the numbers, and numbers beget numbers, the Mathew principle was working for those who had been front and center when the lights went out in America.

While over time if the change is not a tweak to the software itself by TikTok engineers, America once again over time will push out voices with their dominant network effects, but for now it feels refreshing and even revolutionary to have people from all over the world being heard above the shouting of a country in turmoil.

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