That could mean that one of Arizona’s most proficient and informative accounts — the one belonging to Democratic state Sen. Analise Ortiz — will go dark. She’s not happy about it.
“I think it’s incredibly disappointing,” Ortiz told Phoenix New Times. “I think it sets a bad precedent going forward when it comes to free speech and what the government is censoring.”
TikTok took off during the coronavirus pandemic as an irreverent place for Gen Z kids to post videos of choreographed dances. Now, the entire internet – including roughly 170 million Americans — uses it for a wide range of purposes.
Like many others, Ortiz started using TikTok to connect during the dark times at the beginning of the pandemic. But when she launched her campaign for the Arizona House of Representatives in 2022, Ortiz utilized TikTok to “get the word out” about her campaign and priorities.
She now has nearly 48,000 followers, for whom she shines a light on what happens in state government. Her top post generated 1.2 million views and others routinely attract hundreds of thousands. In May, Ortiz’s TikTok page was noted by New Times as one of the top political accounts to follow on social media.
@senanaliseortiz High rent, a housing shortage, and stagnant wages are leading to more people living on the streets. We cannot criminalize our way out of this crisis. We need bold policy changes that too many politicians are afraid to take. Hold them accountable.
♬ New Home - Frozen Silence
“It by far has not only been the most effective at getting out information about the business we do at the Capitol, but it also spreads that message to a very diverse audience,” Ortiz said. “I have had people from all across the Valley of all ages who recognize me in public because of TikTok and thank me for lifting the veil on the state capitol.”
A communications professional by trade, Ortiz has a unique insight into how losing TikTok will affect content creators and businesses in Arizona and beyond. To her, using the app is a “simpler and more effective” way to reach an intended audience than on other platforms, such as Facebook, Instagram or X.
In addition to her concerns about the ban limiting speech, Ortiz said she worries for small business owners who “grow and expand their businesses using TikTok who are now going to be at a loss of income.”
“There’s something about the TikTok algorithm that makes it more effective to reach people who are interested in your content,” Ortiz said. “While with other social media platforms, it’s almost as if you have to seek them out and put in much more effort toward finding and following the people who are going to care about what you have to say.”
@senanaliseortiz 0 days without Republican nonsense! This is suppression of democracy. NO on HCR 2060.
♬ original sound - senanaliseortiz
Congress passed and President Joe Biden signed the ban to address concerns about the China-based app helping a foreign adversary spy on Americans through the data it collects. Under the law, TikTok may continue to operate in the U.S. if it’s sold to an American company. But such a transaction is impossible with one day until the ban takes effect.
For people looking to use social media to communicate, losing TikTok would leave them with few options. There is X, owned by Elon Musk, and Instagram and Facebook, both owned by Meta and Mark Zuckerberg. X has already devolved into a right-wing echo chamber, while Meta announced that it’s ending its fact-checking program as Trump retakes the White House, abandoning all attempts to rein in the global political chaos that Facebook played a key role in creating.
Ortiz finds none of those options particularly appealing.
“You see these two kind of tech bro oligarchs that are now going to have even more power. And with that comes the censorship of content toward a very narrow political view,” Ortiz said. “And that should really be something that scares Americans.”
That sentiment was recently summed up in a column by the Guardian’s Rebecca Shaw that is titled, “I knew one day I’d have to watch powerful men burn the world down – I just didn’t expect them to be such losers.”
If the days of TikTok are indeed numbered, Ortiz will lose a major audience. But anyone interested can still follow her on other platforms. In a recent TikTok post, one user asked where she’d be going. Ortiz’s reply was simple: the only places left.
“Find me on IG, FB and X,” she wrote. “@senanaliseortiz.”
