Why a potential TikTok ban should worry you.
If you’re active on social media, surely by now you’ve heard about the TikTok app potentially getting banned. No longer is it just a rumor; with the United States House of Representatives passing a bill that could pave the way to an outright ban of the app if its Chinese owners fail to divest.
The bill has yet to clear the U.S. Senate, but concerns are growing that the bill may have enough momentum to pass and eventually signed into law by President Biden, who has expressed support.
But what does this mean for the social media industry as a whole? And why should we be concerned?
Understanding the motive
To understand the bill, you must understand the motive behind the bill. In short, U.S. lawmakers are concerned about the pressure the Chinese government may be placing on ByteDance (the app’s owner) to influence Americans on socio-political fronts. The idea here, in plain English, is that the Chinese government could push pro-China and anti-American sentiments over the app, and thus threaten U.S. national security.
But some would argue that the only threat here is the United States potentially curbing freedom of speech, which should have Americans on high alert.
Why the bill is concerning
While we do most of our work on other platforms like YouTube and don’t have a vested interest in the existence of TikTok, we believe every American should be able to decide for themselves whether the TikTok app is safe to use. It should not be up to lawmakers to decide which apps are safe or unsafe on any basis. If there is truly a thread, the first step — in our humble opinion — is education. If we can educate people on the risks they are exposed to, we believe everything else will be taken care of and the consumer can decide which apps live to see another day, and which are eventually forgotten.
What worries us in particular is the precedent being set. What’s stopping the U.S. government from using this legislation to ban other apps for potentially being unsafe on a national security front? Who defines what that threat is and why it exists? The level of control here seems overreaching and frightening.
What you can do
We’re not here to convince you of which side to take. We respect all sides of the spectrum. We do think that Americans should seriously evaluate the implications of what could happen upon the bill’s potential passage as they relate to more than just TikTok. Could they come for another app you know and love? If you agree with the potential ban, that is certainly your prerogative. If you disagree, you may consider contacting your U.S. congressperson and express that concern.
Our freedoms are valuable, and we can’t pick and choose which mode of expression is valid versus another. They are all valid regardless of who owns a particular app.
