I have personally felt the sting of TikTok's exploitative platform, subjected to excessive fees and skyrocketing shipping costs aimed at luring customers. As a platform, TikTok seems to be more interested in the maximization of its shareholders' profits than the advancement of small businesses. They have crafted a system where they reap excessive profits from every transaction, crippling sellers with unreasonable fees.

The struggle is not mine alone. Thousands of entrepreneurs are cinched by the same financial constraints imposed by TikTok, rendering their businesses less productive and profitable. They leverage these businesses for their gains, a perversion of what the platform can and should do.

Astonishingly, TikTok, with its reported revenue of $34.3 billion in 2020, gets a significant chunk from such acts of exploitation - indicating the extent of this problem (source: BusinessofApps, 2021). This is not right. The platform was created for content sharing, entertainment, and connection, not massive exploitation.

There's an urgent need to protect the backbone of our communities, the small businesses, from being siphoned dry by such tech behemoths. A global ban on TikTok could be effective in sending a clear message: global, open market practices of exploitation will not be tolerated.

We must bring this issue to the forefront and lobby for a global ban on TikTok to counteract their predatory business model. Let us stand more robustly in our call for rectitude in the digital marketplace and protect the businesses that form the bedrock of our economies.

We urge you to take a firm stand and sign this petition today. Let’s join hands and fight against exploitative practices in digital marketplaces. Together, we can make a difference.