After a slow infancy in which it has become best known for generating dance routines and memes, TikTok can now lay claim to being the new disrupter of the age. The social media platform, first launched in China in 2016, has been gaining in maturity for a while now. Lockdown has unquestionably accelerated the pace. And where once the platform and its users were dismissed as puerile, the content lately has wisened up.

The comedian Sarah Cooper, for example, has harnessed an audience of millions by performing Donald Trump’s speeches via lip-sync, a tool more traditionally reserved for users who like mouthing along to Justin Bieber songs. Cooper has picked up a slew of admirers — Ben Stiller, Jimmy Fallon and Jerry Seinfeld for a start — and signed with the WME agency, making her one the biggest breakout stars of quarantine. Not bad considering she’s using someone else’s material and has yet to say a word.

Yet, phenomenal though her success has been, Cooper is an adult who has successfully exploited a platform designed for teens. Far more explosive is what is happening on TikTok in the hands of the kids. In a brilliant act of political sabotage last weekend, TikTok teenagers and K-pop fans claimed responsibility for the poor attendance at Trump’s Tulsa rally by block-booking tickets, and then jettisoning their seats.