BUFFALO, N.Y. — For many people across the United States, TikTok has been much more than a social media platform.
“I think a lot of the recent statistics suggest that at least for younger individuals like 18 to 25 and even younger, TikTok is a significant source of both social support and social conservation and news,” said Kenny Joseph, associate professor of Computer Science and Engineering and associate director of A.I. and Society, Institute of AI and Data Science, University at Buffalo.
The platform possesses both good qualities, like adversely impacting mental health for some users, and bad qualities like the ability for people to spread disinformation and misinformation…