TikTok is the social media hype cycle on speed

Censorship claims emerge as TikTok gets political in India:

Ajay Barman, 22, is a fading TikTok star in India.

It is staggering to me that we have reached the point that there can be TikTok stars so quickly. It’s less than three years old. And I am flabbergasted that we have also reached the point that they can be fading. The reason is interesting, though:

Not because he is past his prime, but because - he alleges - he's been "shadow banned" for uploading videos on Hindu-Muslim brotherhood on the popular video creation and sharing platform.

There’s a growing body of evidence that TikTok’s owners, ByteDance, are suppressing political content on the platform. Given that the company is Chinese, that’s not a surprise. And clearly problematic in some ways

But it will be interesting to see if it can fend off the rapid growth in toxicity other platforms have seen, without alienating its young - and politically engaged - user base.