Washington Post opinion columnist Taylor Lorenz contends in her latest piece that the bipartisan group of lawmakers who devoted last week’s congressional hearing to the threat posed by the short-form video application TikTok understand neither the platform nor its audience. To judge by her assumptions about TikTok, Lorenz is just as confused about how the platform operates.
Lorenz manages some workmanlike generational critiques of the aging members of Congress who have mistakenly labeled viral displays of self-harm – sautéing chicken in NyQuil and asphyxiating yourself until you lose consciousness, for example – “TikTok challenges.” She correctly notes that these and other cloying acts of masochism can be found on many other social media platforms, too.
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