TikTok is Gone (for one day). And No One Should Be Surprised.

Well, the countdown clock hit zero. January 19th, 2025. TikTok is officially off the American internet, banished like some digital leper. Cue the outrage, the hand-wringing about free speech, the usual suspects lining up to decry the end of the “open internet.” Give me a break.

Let’s get one thing brutally clear: the free internet was always a myth. A comforting one, sure, but a myth nonetheless. From the dial-up screech of the early days, you paid for access. You paid your ISP. You paid for the hardware. And increasingly, you paid with your data, your attention, your very digital soul. This wasn’t some benevolent public utility; it was always a sprawling marketplace, dressed up in the utopian garb of connection. It felt free, and that feeling was intoxicating, profitable, and ultimately, strategically leveraged.

And you know what? That “free” feeling did a lot of good. It connected people across continents, allowed niche communities to flourish, and gave a voice to the voiceless. We built incredible things on that foundation. But let’s not be naive. That same “free” feeling also built empires. Empires of data, empires of influence, empires of pure, unadulterated profit. The tech giants, the ones now tut-tutting about the erosion of the open web, were the primary beneficiaries of this illusion. They feasted on the “free” content we created, monetized our interactions, and built walled gardens around our attention. So spare me the crocodile tears.

This TikTok ban, dressed up in national security concerns, is just the latest symptom of a larger disease. A disease of control, of managed information flows. And it’s a trajectory we’re all too familiar with. Remember the promise of unfettered global trade? How’s that going? Tariffs here, sanctions there, strategic partnerships designed to exclude. The “free” flow of goods, like the “free” flow of information, always bumps up against the realities of power, politics, and profit.

But let’s not kid ourselves. This slow strangulation of the open web, this creeping Balkanization of information, isn’t primarily being strangled by the red tape of bureaucrats. No, the real killer, the silent assassin of open information, is sitting right there in your pocket: artificial intelligence.

Think about it. Large language models are increasingly shaping what we see, what we read, what we believe. Algorithms, trained on vast datasets, are curating our feeds, recommending our news, even writing our content. The very fabric of the internet is being rewoven by machines, and the notion of “free” information becomes increasingly meaningless when that information is filtered, biased, or even entirely synthetic.

We can yell and scream about censorship, about the overreach of governments. And those are valid concerns. But we’re missing the bigger picture. The information landscape is shifting beneath our feet, and the old rules don’t apply. Whether it’s a government ban or an AI-powered filter bubble, the result is the same: less genuine openness, less serendipitous discovery, less true “free” flow.

Just like “free trade” eventually coalesces into managed markets and strategic alliances, the “free internet” was always destined for this. More walls. More gates. Less open flow. It was never sustainable.

So, let’s understand the truth, shall we? The internet we knew, the one that felt liberating and boundless, was a fleeting moment in history. A beautiful, messy, and ultimately unsustainable experiment. The TikTok ban is just a particularly visible marker on this inevitable path.

The future of information isn’t about being “free.” It’s about being controlled. The fight isn’t about clinging to a nostalgic past; it’s about understanding who controls the algorithms, who shapes the narratives, and who ultimately dictates what we get to see. That’s the truth we need to grapple with, long after the dust settles on the TikTok ban, even if it may only last for one day.