Some time ago, I explored TikTok’s babygirlification phenomenon, explaining its origin, ins and outs, and whatnot. Now, months later, I return with another piece about the app. However, this time around, we’ll be looking at what I call ‘The Great TikTok Silencing’.
What happened and why
On February 1st, TikTok users opened the app and found that certain sounds had been removed from many videos. Cue the chaos. Edits set to epic music and dialogue snippets were suddenly rendered silent, the only explanation being a small message at the bottom of the screen that read “Sound removed due to copyright restrictions.”
The Enquirer reported that Universal Music Group had not been able to reach an agreement with TikTok regarding music licensing on the app, causing their songs to be removed at the end of Wednesday, January 31st. The record label had released an open letter on January 30th, the day before the licensing agreement expired, in which they argued that negotiations fell through due to several issues, which included artist pay, user safety, and artificial intelligence protection. Essentially, UMG criticized TikTok and claimed that the company tried to bully them into coming to an agreement. On the other hand, TikTok, in their response to the accusations, countered that the music label’s statement was a false narrative created out of greed.
How the people handled it
This event is proof that people have endless creativity. Editors faced with their now-silent clips wanted to figure out how to restore sound to them. Obviously, the removed music was not an option anymore. So how did they handle it? By using the most random sounds and songs you could think of. At this point I want to highlight something my mom told me when I ranted about the situation as it was happening: for the editors, “it’s a challenge, not a problem.” The Home Depot theme song, the 20th Century Fox theme, Kahoot music, songs that had been removed played with a voice filter… Whatever you think of, the editors incorporated it. This led to the creation of a myriad of well-made edits set to odd background music or audios. Nobody could stop the production of fan content, not even with the removal of copious amounts of music from a music-based app.
Perhaps the most notable (temporary) loss caused by the Silencing was TikTok user dvcree’s infamous Agent Whiskey edit. Immediately, the comments were flooded by people saying “NOOOO THEY GOT THE PEDRO PASCAL EDIT,” “THE DAY THE MUSIC DIED,” and “THEY’VE HIT THE PENTAGON.” Luckily, for those of us who have the edit saved, the sound was restored after a few excruciating days.
Since then, a lot of the music has been restored. That being said, some other videos that were not initially affected by the Silencing were hit some time after the initial purge. My own saves are a reflection of this: some that had been muted at the beginning of February now have their music back. Yet others that had nothing to do with the original Silencing got muted. It is not entirely uncommon for audios to be removed, but the scale at which it happened was what turned The Great Silencing into such a big deal for TikTok users. So let this be a warning to check your saved videos and make sure that they have been spared from this situation. I wish you the best of luck!