To Tik or not to Tok?

The Validity of TikTok as a News Source

What is the validity and legitimacy of TikTok as a news outlet?

To Tik or not Tok, that is the question?

As an American Citizen, is it safe to be on a fundamentally Chinese platform?

Do the rewards outweigh the risks?

Do the risks outweigh the rewards?

Is it really spying on you and those around you?

All questions I ask myself and those around me.

As a TikTok and social media consumer, I am of the position that TikTok is a platform worth partaking in, though careless consumption can lead to physical and psychological repercussions.

A florist by day, and journalist by night, I built my floral brand, Atelier Ashley Flowers on social media, specifically Instagram.

I credit Instagram with saving my business in 2020, when the entire DC Events industry shuttered overnight and I had to make an immediate pivot from exclusive in person events to singular contactless home deliveries.

I had already put the time into building an engaged community following Instagram, so when I needed help, I was able to post and my people rallied around me.  For years I continued to build my online presence and believe in the power of the social platform.

Instagram has changed drastically over the years, becoming very much pay to play with very limited organic reach or organic engagement.

It is extremely difficult for new business to break out or build a following on Instagram in 2026, but this is not true for TikTok.

TikTok still maintains its potential organic virality and exponential growth trajectory for those savvy or lucky enough to strike a cord.

But what takes you up can also take you down.

In 2022 I was still interested in expanding my business so I started posting and consuming TikTok content.  Very quickly I saw just how dangerous the TikTok community could be.  Because of the Algorithm things can get out of hand very quickly, and it is full of individuals who find pleasure  and justice in Doxing (exposing someones name, home address, work, family etc) anyone they don’t agree with.  Bodily harm and death threats are just part of the game, and there are numerous incidents where TikTok is a vehicle for destroying someones real life.

A mob mentality backed by “anonymity” and a feeling of power is very dangerous.

I am a person with unique opinions and realized the very real danger of being cancelled by TikTok. For this reason the content I chose to post was strictly floral, nothing about my personal life or personal beliefs, and I did not link my Instagram to my TikTok as people who want to grow their following normally do.

Still, it is a search engine, and what “younger” consumers are using, so as a business owner, I believe it is important to have a digital home there.

In 2023 I stopped actively growing my business, and my TikTok posts dwindled to a small trickle, but I kept consuming the content.

If you are unfamiliar, TikTok has several options for “feeds,” they are STEM, Explore, Local, Following, Shop, and For You.

For You, or what is also know as FYP (For You Page) is the one I spend the most time on.  It is content curated to my specific interests as I have fed the app data over time.  The FYP is intensely personal, and should you ever want to know someones secret life, get ahold of that and it will tell you all about what they are thinking feeling, or who they have been interacting with recently.

It is intended to show you the “information” that will keep you on the app for the longest amount of time.

I don’t want to fully expose all my secret thoughts, but I will tell you my FYP is full of all sorts of world news, local news, military news, psychology, and new technology.

Now can you trust everything you see? NO, absolutely not! but it can be used as a tool for curiosity and a jumping off point for further inquiry and research.

One of the more dangerous aspects of a feed is real information taken out of context and timeline.  Think a Tsunami warning that is real, but maybe two years old, or demonstration footage that is real, but from a completely different country.

But we are smart, and on our phone all we have to do is click our internet app and google whatever is in question.  If it is real, you will get all the latest breaking stories and if not, you will be reminded to always verify your source.

Is TikTok spying on you? Yes it is.  I have this knowledge from people who have worked inside the company.  Everything they say about the security risks are real, but what is also real is that TikTok can’t manage all of that data for all people all the time, so it isn’t necessarily personal or always actionable.

It is my opinion that the most dangerous threat TikTok poses is the weaponization of isolation and psychosis through the algorithm.  TikTok could be viewed as a tool used to generally destabilize the American public by pushing content that promotes paranoia and false realities.  If a user is constantly watching videos about bad friendships, or narcism, or evil coworkers, the algorithm can easily and dispassionately begin to feed content that will play into and continue to build a psychological reality that translates into real life actions.  The platform will tell you what you want to hear and confirm your existing suspicions regardless of their actual merit or validity.  This is something to stay vigilant and constantly aware of.

I think that is is an algorithm that can radicalize individuals already predisposed to violent thoughts, taking them from the point of inaction to execution, simply by pushing reinforcing content.

I also believe, though do not have confirmation that specific individual accounts can be monitored and tracked again with the intention of being pro-China.  This is why it can’t be on government phones or computers.

So, if the threat is real, and I’m not using it to promote my business, why be on there?

The information is that good.

For me personally, the rewards outweigh the risks.