Weekly Scroll: SmolBeanification of TikTok

Plus! Columbia students protest, gambling everywhere, and a bad keyboard meme

Whoa! We’re nearing the one year anniversary of Infinite Scroll, but for some reason social media keeps doing stupid things. Which I guess means I still have a job? Not sure how to feel about it all, but if you want to jump in with a paid subscription now’s a great time! Onto the week in discourse…

TikTok Still Sucks At PR

We’ve been talking about it for months, and last week Joe Biden finally signed into law the divest or ban bill that would prevent TikTok from being owned by a Chinese company. TikTok is expected to challenge the bill in court and legal scholars seem unsure whether or not it will hold up under scrutiny.¹

One of the recurring themes of this blog is criticism of PR campaigns. Whether it’s TikTok, fast fashion brands, or the Royal Family, I am amazed how powerful institutions continually fall on their faces and make very obvious PR blunders. The last time we talked about TikTok, they sent an army of shrieking children after Congressional staff and were confused why that backfired:

I regret to inform you they’ve done it again. Their response this time is more professional, coming from TikTok directly rather than from a horde of underaged TikTok users. But they’re still making basic errors. Here’s the video from CEO Shou Chew - see what you notice when watching.

@tiktokResponse to TikTok Ban Bill

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There are so many things I hate about this video - things that make this a terrible PR move if you’re TikTok.