A TikTok Use Case: Another How To
April 7, 2025
Another dinobaby blog post. Eight decades and still thrilled when I point out foibles.
Social media services strike me as problematic. As a dinobaby, I marvel at the number of people who view services through a porthole in their personal submarine. Write ups that are amazed at the applications of social media which are negative remind me that there are some reasons meaningful regulation of TikTok-type services has not been formulated. Are these negative use cases news? For me, nope.
I read “How TikTok Is Emerging As an Essential Tool for Migrant Smugglers.” The write up explains how a “harmless” service can be used for criminal activities. The article says:
At a time when legal pathways to the U.S. have been slashed and criminal groups are raking in money from migrant smuggling, social media apps like TikTok have become an essential tool for smugglers and migrants alike. The videos—taken to cartoonish extremes—offer a rare look inside a long elusive industry and the narratives used by trafficking networks to fuel migration north.
Yep, TikTok is a marketing tool for people smugglers. Wow! Really?
Is this a surprise? My hunch is that the write up reveals more about the publication and the researchers than it does about human smugglers.
Is this factoid unheard of?
A 2023 study by the United Nations reported that 64% of the migrants they interviewed had access to a smart phone and the internet during their migration to the U.S.
A free service used by millions of people provides a communications fabric. Marketing is the go-to function of organizations, licit and illicit.
Several observations:
- Social media — operating in the US or in countries with different agendas — is a tool. Tools can be used for many purposes. Why wouldn’t bad actors exploit TikTok or any other social media service.
- The intentional use of a social media service for illegal purposes is wide spread. LinkedIn includes fake personas; Telegram offers pirated video content; and Facebook — sure, even Facebook — allows individuals to advertise property for sale which may not come with a legitimate sales receipt from the person who found a product on a door step in an affluent neighborhood. Social media invites improper activity.
- Regulation in many countries has not kept space with the diffusion of social media. In 2025, worrying about misuse of these services is not even news.
The big question is, “Have we reached a point of no return with social media?” I have been involved in computers and digital information for more than a half century. The datasphere is the world in which we live.
Will the datasphere evolve? Yes, the intentional use of social media is shifting toward negative applications. For me that means that for every new service, I do not perceive a social benefit. I see opportunities for accelerating improper use of data flows.
What strikes me about the write up is that documenting a single issue is interesting, but it misses what and how flows of information in TikTok-like service operate. Who are the winners? Who are the losers? And, who will own TikTok and the information space for its users?
Stephen E Arnold, April 7, 2025
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