Headline, May 25 2022/ ''' '' WHAT TIKTOK WHAM '' '''

''' '' WHAT TIKTOK

 WHAM '' '''

GHAZI HAIDER NAQVI - AN ENGINEERING STUDENT - is one very brave lad. And he is also blessed with great beautiful parents. I have seen Ghazi grow up with solid steel determination. You all, research and find his MIRACLE.

It is a great honour and a privilege to nominate him as '' The World Students Society's Global Ambassador '' to TikTok - right up to 31st December 2023. '' Welcome to all and everyone on !WOW! "

FOR YOUNG USERS OF TIKTOK - A BAN COULD BE A 'KICK IN THE FACE'. TikTok was once known as a place to share silly videos and trendy dance moves, has become an increasingly important public forum in recent years.

It is used as a platform to discuss politics, as a search engine and as a source of news - and, sometimes, as a place to spread misinformation.

Student Christian Poole, 20, has deemed himself ''the unofficial ambassador for the state of Montana.''

On TikTok, his favorite social media platform, he posts lighthearted videos about the peculiarities of his home state. His nearly 420,000 followers reward him with hearts and laughing-face emojis.

But when Gov. Greg Gianforte of Montana signed a bill recently making his state the first in the United States to ban the site, Mr. Poole, along with hundreds of thousands of users, was left trying to make sense of the unlikely collision between TikTok's mostly young users and international geopolitics.

Recent videos posted by Mr. Poole, of Bozeman, cover topics like cows, which outnumber people in Montana, and spring showers, which often bring frozen pellets called graupel, not rain. He says he posts for fun, not money, and his objective on the app is simple :  '' I want to make people laugh.''

Mr. Poole expected the ban to face numerous legal challenges, he said, so he was not '' losing sleep '' over it.

He was also skeptical that it would be enforced and he questioned the justification for it from the governor, a Republican, who called the bill ''the most decisive action of any state to protect Montanans' private data and sensitive personal information from being harvested by the Chinese Communist Party'' in a statement.

'' Nothing happens here. Nothing,'' Mr. Poole said. He added, '' There's no key player in global politics or even global interactions between the United States and China that live here in Montana.''

The law, if upheld, wouldn't go into effect until the beginning of the next year.

''It would be removing all this hard work that I've done over the last four years,'' Mr. Poole said. '' It would be a real kick in the face for me.''

Many young TikTok fans were more puzzled than outraged. 

'' I don't understand how they're going to enforce it,'' said Abi Edgar, 19, who works in the Big Dipper ice cream shop in downtown Helena. She says, she watches TikTok - scrolling through K-pop videos, maybe, or news reports -for hours at a time. '' I'm confused why they're banning it,'' she said.

Ellen McLean, another 19-year-old working at the same shop, was equally put off by the same decision.

'' It keeps you busy when you are bored,'' she said of TikTok. '' It's more lighthearted than other apps, and people don't care what they post.''

She added that it was good for tourism in Montana. '' It's a really good place, to promote Yellowstone and Glacier and BigSky.''

Not all of the site's fans are in their teens and twenties. Jeff Spurlin, 70, runs a crepe coffee shop in Helena. His younger co-workers introduced him to TikTok, he said, and he now looks at it daily for cooking videos, fitness tips and random fun facts.

He saw the ban, passed in a legislature dominated by Republicans, as a reflection of the state's recent lurch to the right.

'' In Montana's current political climate, it doesn't surprise me,'' he said. ''It's beyond conservative, and extremely far right. It's scary conservative.''

'' I think that if the state wants to stop people from using TikTok, they're going to have to show a little more teeth than they've done thus far,'' said Paul Kim, 22, of Missoula.

He speculated that state lawmakers might use the ban - and the legal challenges that are sure to follow -as a preview, to see how similar legislative attempts might play out across the country.

Mr. Kim, an organizer and activist who also works for the American Civil Liberties Union but was not speaking on behalf of the organization, said that the TikTok algorithm had helped him connect with other people who shared his interests.

Mr. Kim, who enjoys researching the history of the Chinese experience in Montana, said the TikTok ban was also in line with a recurring theme in state politics : Politicians in both parties have been playing up geopolitcal concerns about Beijing.

By day's end, the blend of international complications and Montana TikTok videos still felt like unmatched pieces. But the platform seemed as inescapable as ever.

'' I was talking about escalators with an employee,'' Mr.Spurlin said. And he said, ' There's a Costco in California with an escalator.'' And I said, 'How do you know that?' He said, ' I saw it on TikTok.' ''

The Honour and Serving of the Latest Global Operational Research on TikTok, Social Media, Geopolitics, and Users, continues. The World Students Society thanks authors Jacey Fortin, Eliza Fawcett and Jim Robbins.

With most respectful dedication to The Global Founder Framers of !WOW!, Leaders, Grandparents, and then Students, Professors and Teachers of the world.

! Samdailytimes.Org : '' The Voice Of The Voiceless.'' ! See You all prepare for Great Global Elections on !WOW! - The exclusive ownership of every student in the world : wssciw.blogspot.com and Twitter - !E-WOW! - The Ecosystem 2011 :

Good Night and God Bless

SAM Daily Times - the Voice of the Voiceless