ICYMI I Miss The Old TikTok
Jan 31, 2026
Laura Wheatman Hill, writer and commentator who penned the Slate piece arguing TikTok should be abandoned. They talk about TikTok’s ownership shakeup, algorithm failures that erased personalized feeds, reports of removals and blocked messages, and how these changes threaten the platform’s cultural relevance and trust.
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How TikTok Ended Up Under New Owners
- TikTok's forced-sale saga began in 2020 and culminated in a US-controlled joint venture takeover in 2026.
- The new owner mix, including Oracle allies, triggered trust and censorship concerns among users.
Algorithm Felt Like It Disappeared
- Laura Wheatman Hill opened TikTok after the transition and felt her personalized algorithm vanished.
- She saw irrelevant ads and Gen Z confessionals and found the app wouldn't relearn her preferences.
TikTok's Algorithm Created Cultural Nowness
- The original TikTok recommendation system could surface personal and health-related content before users knew they wanted it.
- That predictive 'nowness' made TikTok culturally dominant compared with competing short-video apps.