TikTok, the clock is ticking on the latest social media trend

"For all the mums out there, what is TikTok?” Hollywood actor and mother of three Reese Witherspoon asked this of her 15-year-old son, Deacon, last month, in a post on Instagram.

“Basically, it’s a short-form video platform for kids,” Deacon replied, grinning widely at the camera – and possibly at his behind-the-times famous mother.

Reese Witherspoon’s son Deacon brings his mum up to speed on the popular app TikTok.Credit:@reesewitherspoon/instagram

If A-list Hollywood stars have trouble keeping up with the latest social media platform, there’s not much hope for those of us who remember paying electricity bills at the post office. TikTok, an app that allows users to post videos of themselves doing everything from lip-syncing to playing air guitar to presenting exercise or make-up tutorials, has become the mega teen hit of 2019, amassing 500 million active monthly users across the globe after being launched two years ago. While each video is 15 seconds or less, clips can be linked for up to 60 seconds of content.

TikTok has turned a growing list of emerging artists into viral sensations and pop stars. These include 20-year-old American rapper Lil Nas X, who went from sleeping on his sister’s floor to securing a record contract with Columbia Records after having a hit on TikTok with his country rap single, Old Town Road. Then there’s 20-year-old Brit Amelia Gething, who, after collecting 7 million followers on TikTok, has been offered her own BBC sketch comedy show, The Amelia Gething Complex.

Developed by Chinese tech firm Bytedance, which is touted as the world’s most valuable start-up, TikTok has been seen by its detractors as a sign of the troubling advance of China into the soft power of social media. The company has been accused of commanding its moderators to censor videos mentioning Tiananmen Square, Tibetan independence and the banned religious group Falun Gong.

The Washington Post has reported that a search of TikTok for the recent protests in Hong Kong brings up “playful selfies, food photos and singalongs”. In February this year, Bytedance agreed to pay a $US5.7 million fine to settle claims by the US Government that it illegally collected personal information from kids under 13.

How long TikTok can prevail as The Thing remains to be seen. Remember Vine, the short-video-sharing app that launched the career of Shawn Mendes? It closed in 2017.

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