For reasons totally unrelated to the sabotaging of his campaign rally earlier this year, Donald Trump is threatening to ban TikTok in the US. He’s given the Chinese-owned company till September 15th to sell its US operations to an American company or else face a nationwide ban. However, his good buddy Kanye West is proposing an alternate path: turn TikTok into a Christian-friendly video service.
The 2020 presidential candidate (?) proposed the prospective rebrand via Twitter on Monday, claiming the concept came to him as some sort of spiritual revelation. “A VISION JUST CAME TO ME… JESUS TOK I WAS WATCHING TIK TOK WITH MY DAUGHTER AND AS A CHRISTIAN FATHER I WAS DISTURBED BY A LOT OF THE CONTENT BUT I COMPLETELY LOVED THE TECHNOLOGY,” he wrote.
In order to maintain the smart tech while limiting so-called “disturbing” content found on TikTok proper, Kanye landed on the idea of a viral video app specifically tailored for the Christian community. “WE PRAY WE CAN COLLABORATE WITH TIK TOK TO MAKE A CHRISTIAN MONITORED VERSION THAT FEELS SAFE FOR YOUNG CHILDREN AND THE WORLD IN JESUS NAME AMEN,” read a second tweet.
A VISION JUST CAME TO ME… JESUS TOK I WAS WATCHING TIK TOK WITH MY DAUGHTER AND AS A CHRISTIAN FATHER I WAS DISTURBED BY A LOT OF THE CONTENT BUT I COMPLETELY LOVED THE TECHNOLOGY
— ye (@kanyewest) August 17, 2020
WE PRAY WE CAN COLLABORATE WITH TIK TOK TO MAKE A CHRISTIAN MONITORED VERSION THAT FEELS SAFE FOR YOUNG CHILDREN AND THE WORLD IN JESUS NAME AMEN
— ye (@kanyewest) August 17, 2020
Kanye is certainly used to bringing unusual products to market, but a Christian TikTok might be a pretty hard sell. It’s unclear exactly what TikTok content constitutes as “disturbing” to Ye, but the idea of possibly “monitoring” and censoring the very things that make TikTok successful seems pretty counterintuitive. On the flip side, platforms like dating site Christian Mingle continue to exist, so there could very well be a demographic that’s been waiting to raise up their prayer hands while “How Great Thou Art” blasts in the background.
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But perhaps money isn’t the end goal here for Kanye, who previously vowed to only release gospel music from now on. Could Jesus Tok actually be in service to Jesus? Or will it merely be a tactic to draw in Christian voters? To further push along his spoiler campaign? After all, Kanye did say he’d vote for Trump come November.
