January 21, 2025 Weekly Update

The TikTok ban and Chiropractic

Late last Saturday evening, TikTok was taken offline by its owners, ByteDance, in response to a new law outlawing Chinese ownership of the social media company. 

While this outage lasted less than a day, chiropractors can learn several things from this series of events. 

1. Political action works, eventually… The TikTok ban was over four years in the making before it went offline. TikTok creators and others have been mobilizing and advocating against it since President Trump initially proposed it in 2020 (https://trumpwhitehouse.archives.gov/presidential-actions/executive-order-addressing-threat-posed-tiktok/). Despite these efforts, the government continued to work towards a ban. It took the reality of the ban going into effect for actual change to happen.
2. Bad ideas are sometimes immune to political party affiliation… President Trump initially proposed the TikTok ban, which was passed by a Republican-led House, passed by a Democratic-led Senate, and signed by President Biden. The Supreme Court unanimously upheld the law implementing the ban. Just days before the ban took effect, everyone involved tried to distance themselves from it.
3. What the government gives, the government can take away… Your right to practice is enshrined in state law, but simple changes to that law or other state laws could take away your right to practice or to perform many of the functions you perform daily in your office to help your patients. 
4. As a chiropractor, your livelihood is tied to the whims of politicians… As the implementation progressed, thousands of digital creators who relied on TikTok for most of their income started to worry about how they would pay their bills the next month. 

The Kansas Chiropractic Association, thanks to our members, is involved with the legislative process throughout the entire Kansas legislative session. Dr. Oller is at the capital daily when the legislator is in session. We have several volunteers who help him read and review legislation to ensure no bills that affect your ability to practice within your scope of practice are missed. 

Over the last ten years, the Kansas Chiropractic Association has successfully fought to change proposed legislation that would affect your ability to perform acupuncture, dry needling, massage therapy, manual therapies, and physical modalities. 

If you are a KCA member, thank you for supporting the profession. If you are not a KCA member, consider joining us in the fight to protect your right to practice.