If you like TikTok, you’re not alone. They exist billion of you are now using the application, of which only 170 million are Americans. Many of those millions are obviously concerned and livid about the bill passed this week that could ban the app in the United States. While the bill’s fate in the Senate is uncertain whether it will pass, President Biden says he will sign it. And if parent company ByteDance fails to sell the app within six months of signing the deal, we’ll say goodbye to TikTok in the US
I feel for anyone who is concerned about losing their favorite app. But we need to take a step back: whether it’s lawmakers cracking down on the app or TikTok fighting for its life, the situation is getting out of control and weird. And whatever happens here, I’m not convinced it will be good.
The Congress is a bunch of hypocrites out of touch with reality
Let’s not beat around the bush: Congress is here NO deal with this situation well at all.
Yes, lawmakers are concerned about the security implications massively a popular application driven by a powerful algorithm controlled by a Chinese company. They worry about how the app is addicting American children and what effect it could have on them. But good Lord: can we act like adults here?
The first example that comes to mind is, of course, Senator Tom Cotton. Even if you don’t know who Senator Cotton is, you’ve seen him the infamous interrogation of TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew. Senator Cotton was adamant questioning Shou Zi Chew’s ties to China, harassing him about whether he was ever a member of the Chinese Communist Party – despite Chew’s repeated confirmations that he was indeed a citizen of Singapore and not China. Shou Zi Chew’s response: “Senator, I am a Singaporean. “No” is now a meme:
There was also last year’s congressional grilling of Chewalso: Many lawmakers took the opportunity to express their own beliefs about the app rather than allow Chew to answer questions or provide context. As CNN emphasizeswhen Chew asked if he could respond to MP Kat Cammack’s critical speech, the committee chairman said: “No. We will keep going.”
This Really it doesn’t assist that Congress is so focused on TikTok when many of the huge names in tech have very similar privacy policies. We don’t have anything like that European GDPR hereand while we passively benefit from some of these protections, the lack of real US regulation in this area means that US tech companies are also stealing and exploiting our data. This is no secret either: we all know that these companies collect as much of our data as possible and track our habits. All we know is that our lawmakers have no interest in regulating this activity and that it’s up to us to configure every privacy setting available to us or download specific privacy-conscious apps. If it’s Meta or Google, then yes Slim. If it’s an app like TikTok, it should be stopped at all costs.
It was this kind of theatrics and contradictions that completely undermined Congress’ arguments in the eyes of so many TikTok users. People see the xenophobia and hypocrisy: they are not going to take Senator Cotton’s concerns seriously when he stupidly accuses the CEO of their favorite app of being a citizen of another country, while turning a blind eye to every American company that does so wants their data.
TikTok isn’t innocent either
Look, Congress is ruining it bad. But that doesn’t mean TikTok is also on the winning side. Unfortunately, Congress has some grip here when it comes to app security concerns. Yes, American companies do this too: but TikTok is not owned by an American company. ByteDance must answer to the Chinese government, and it does law in China that require companies like ByteDance to hand over user data, including US user data. I don’t blame the US government for not wanting their citizens’ data transferred to any foreign government.
While many privacy and security concerns are hypothetical, not all of them are. In 2022 ByteDance employees obtained the IP addresses of American journalists from their TikTok accounts in an attempt to root out someone leaking company secrets. Last year, TikTok has confirmed that some US user data is stored in Chinadespite the company’s previous assurances that this is not the case.
And this famed algorithm. What makes TikTok so fun and addictive is the algorithm Very does a good job of showing you content that you think you’ll want to see. It’s okay if you’re interested in comedy, cooking, or even different points of view. However, it is not unreasonable for lawmakers to fear that an app with a huge American user base and an extremely persuasive algorithm operated by a company based in a geopolitical rival country could potentially have some compromising effect on the content viewed by those users.
Users critical of lawmakers see TikTok’s concerns as more related to the U.S. government’s lack of control over information shared through TikTok rather than issues of manipulation, and in some respects they may be right. However, to claim that TikTok and its parent company are a neutral party only interested in providing raw, unbiased truths is absurd. TikTok and ByteDance are not a free press: they are companies and, like other companies, they have a primary interest in both your data and keeping you on the app for as long as possible. And while there is no evidence that the Chinese government pressured TikTok to promote specific content to American users, I appreciate the concerns expressed in this case.
TikTok is already using its power to influence its users. Yesterday, the company posted a video of Chew, TikTok’s CEO, using TikTok to support TikTok. I understand: the company does NO I want this bill to be adopted. However, the app informs users about its arduous situation by asking them to do so flood Congress with phone calls expressing disapproval. I can imagine a concerned member of Congress debating whether to pass this bill and reading the comments under this video with fear. ICT Tok Clearly it has a huge impact on a huge swath of the country, and the company does little to assure lawmakers that it has nothing to worry about.
It’s the users who are really going through this right now
Both Congress and TikTok have their points, but also their huge mistakes, but at the end of the day, users are really at the center here – and it sucks. So many of these millions not only enjoy using the app for mindless fun, but many of them rely on it as their life. There are estimates seven million tiny businesses using TikTokand while there are many other social media apps you can exploit to gain an audience, blocking the app would undoubtedly have a negative impact on everyone who currently uses it.
If I could wave a wand and get Congress to pass it actual privacy laws that protect all Americans – so whether you’re TikTok or Facebook, you have to play by the same rules – that’s what I would do. This is what we desperately need, not one-off regulations for a single application. TikTok has a lot of problems. The US government has a lot of problems. This whole situation is a mess and I’m having a demanding time finding a good outcome from it.
