Caden Gilbert
TikTok has been facing the problem of being banned for the past year or so. A bill was passed by both houses of Congress and was signed off by Joe Biden. TikTok still has not been banned, and judges still haven’t decided to implement a law that bans it. The reason the idea of a ban was made in the first place was that China could manipulate the algorithm and spread misinformation. The US has a constant fear of China, believing that they could access American users’ app data and information. If Shou, the owner of TikTok, fails to win in court, they will have to find a new owner by mid-January or prohibit the use of TikTok from all Americans.
Content creators that use TikTok and Americans have argued that banning TikTok is going against the 1st Amendment. Courts have historically protected the right to listen to foreign views or opinions, even if they may be propaganda. Andrew Pincus is an attorney who represents TikTok. He argued that the government’s solution to propaganda from a foreign source has been disclosure, and not banning it completely. Again, it is still unknown as to when courts will reach a legislation, but the law has a deadline of January 19th.
Content creators that use TikTok have argued that this is quite unfair to them and others that use the app. But some argue against its banning because they believe that this new law stemmed from racism and anti-China hysteria. Especially because the owner of TikTok has proven that there is no fraudulent activity in their app.
The people of TikTok have argued that the law is breaking the 1st Amendment by removing users from freely expressing themselves. TikTok has even implemented something called “Project Texas,” which is moving users’ data onto American soil so that it can be monitored. Despite this, TikTok claims that U.S. officials completely abandoned this project with no explanation. It is clear that the U.S. claims the reason for the ban is that the Chinese government has exploited US user data, but TikTok claims that they have no evidence to back this.
In showing that the US has no evidence, people are continually citing the U.S. fearing China is the only driving force behind this ban. A CNN article that covered the ban said “Even the statements by individual Members of Congress and a congressional committee report merely indicate concern about the hypothetical possibility that TikTok could be misused in the future, without citing specific evidence—even though the platform has operated prominently in the United States since it was first launched in 2017.” The US government argues against this by saying that lawmakers have the freedom to take action, even if the ¨threats¨ have not yet been detected.
beniciapaw.com 