TikTok Ban Perspectives: Bridging Head and Heart at space150

We’ve had ample time to prepare for the TikTok ban, but its imminent reality is causing quite a stir—and space150 is no exception. For many of us, this platform has become deeply woven into both our personal and professional lives, sparking passionate opinions and strong feelings across the team. From creative to strategy, media to account, the diversity of perspectives within our agency mirrors the country’s broader reaction. These internal discussions not only highlight our unique viewpoints but also demonstrate how, as an agency, we navigate change and shape the future—together.

THEN

Back in April of 2024, when the reports of a potential ban ramped up, Sarah Zielie (VP of Media) and Jimmy Squires (Chief Technology Officer) placed a public wager on whether the ban would come to fruition. The stake, a “reasonably nice dinner”. The consensus at space150 - TikTok would still be standing come April 2025.

“@Sarah Zielie I will make a bet with you for a reasonably nice dinner of your choosing that in 12 months from this slack you can still open TikTok on your phone and laugh at videos”

NOW

A lot has changed since then. The imminent, likely threat of a ban has sparked a whole new set of differing opinions and feelings as our teams reflect on a digital landscape without TikTok.

Engineering:

In response to users flocking to Red Note, the Engineering team reminds us of the real risk TikTok’s data collection poses. “There’s a good reason it’s getting banned. They can do whatever the hell they want with the data - profile the population, adjust algorithms to feed provocative content that deepens divides or encourages people to do crazy shit, feed pro-china content to alter our sentiments on key issues (either pro-china or anti-america/west). It's less about individual users and more about the collective insight they gain and their ability to pull strings behind the curtain in invisible ways. American companies gather all kinds of data too, yes, but they are at least theoretically governed by our laws, and driven by capitalistic motivations rather than political ones.”

Strategy:

Always the voice of the consumer.

“Why do lawmakers fear ByteDance collecting Americans’ data for potential surveillance, spreading misinformation, and influencing public opinion, yet seem relatively unopposed to U.S. tech companies—many under antitrust investigation—doing the same?” “Aside from maybe Twitter, I’ve never observed a wider variety of culture on any other social channel than Tiktok. It has forever changed how we think about things and how we communicate socially. It created an opportunity for people to find their weird little communities AND amplify their voices to the wider world in a way that Instagram could never replicate. So I’ll miss it if it goes away (or get a VPN like everyone else).” “There’s a lot of talk about TikTok and their algorithm. A highly unique algorithm where a content’s success is basically crowdsourced. An algorithm that brands and other content creators are constantly trying to hack for success. I think lawmakers see words like algorithm or data scrapping and get worried about something they don’t use or really understand.”

“The predictiveness of TikTok is what made it magic. All the data it knew about me and my life allowed it to suggest content ahead of when I would go searching the internet. I think the app being able to give you the answer before you ask the question is scary for our capitalistic government.”

Media:

Always thinking about the metrics.

“My job is helping clients invest their ad dollars where they will see ROI. I'm excited that we've found something other than Google and Meta in the form of TikTok for a lot of our clients, just to explain why I’m bummed about this.”

Creatives:

Saying what we're all thinking… “Duolingo never misses”

Also - “The other day there was a viral tweet claiming to show a “leaked picture of Heaven.” The image had an enormous celestial city with stars in space for a background. Irony-pilled commenters snarked about the fact that the image was AI-generated, and how most people who have Heavenly aspirations don’t want to live in “walkable urban spaces” anyway. It’s dry January; we’re all so very droll. But, frankly, every social media post needs to be a leaked picture of Heaven. If you’re putting something on your feed, you have to ask yourself, is this the product of wrestling with angels? Does it reveal enough of a sublime truth to pique interest, but not so much that the audience consumes it fully and walks away satisfied? Is my post otherworldly? Have I *earned* this post, and is it something my audience deserves? If the answer to any of those questions is no, you absolutely must scrap your post and go back to the drawing board. That is why I believe TikTok should be banned.”

What's Next:

We still don’t know if Jimmy or Sarah is going to win this bet come April, but we know change is coming, and we’re doing the work to prepare for it. For our Media clients, that means pivoting budget to other high-performing channels and keeping an eye out for new opportunities. In anticipation of this change when working with influencers, we’ve looked to partner with creators who have a balanced following across all social platforms. Because creator’s pricing includes syndication of multiple platforms the ban won't affect the execution of any contracts.