Why the TikTok Ban Matters

Dado Ruvic | Reuters

Why does Congress care more about banning an app than helping Americans?

They're Stealing Your Data...But so is Everyone Else

It's not about our data and safety. It's NEVER been about our data and safety. Every single thing you do on the internet is tracked and brokered legally. There are third-party cookies and site trackers, mostly powered by Facebook and Amazon, already tracking your data and selling it to the highest bidder, so what's one more? Just because an app is based outside of the USA doesn't mean it's automatically evil. TikTok even has their own servers on American soil. They even have a MASSIVE office in TEXAS full of American employees who are now facing losing their jobs.

Look, if the American government wanted to ban a Chinese app for the sole reason of it being harmful, then they'd ban Shein and Temu - two apps that use what is essentially slave labor to mass-produce items destined for landfills. Outside of the human cost of these apps, they contribute to climate change negatively via overconsumption.

There is a litany of credible threats to America that should be addressed first, so why is Congress so dialed in on an app made for teens?

Why the Ban?

One of the opinions about the ban being a good thing is attributed to getting rid of more online "brain rot" or content that makes us all dumber. I think this is an unjust generalization. Tiktok offers people access to communities, niche hobbies, and information they might not stumble across. It may have started as a weird lipsyncing app but it's become much more than that. TikTok offers minority content creators a fairer algorithm. People and business make their livelihood from live streams and word-of-mouth reviews. Most videos on Twitter and Reels are farmed from TikTok weeks after they're relevant.

Without TikTok, Americans will be left with no alternatives to the main social media options: Meta and Twitter. Facebook and Instagram have both failed to keep people engaged. Despite stealing features from other popular apps, they still couldn't compete in the marketplace of ideas. When Gen Z embraced Snapchat they created IG stories. When TikTok took off during the pandemic they released Reels. When people fled the husk of Elon's twitter they launched the worst app ever - Threads. These copies never actually overtook the competition, and since they couldn't win by playing fair, they played dirty.

Starting in 2018, Mark Zuckerberg paid millions to GOP lobbyists to paint TikTok as a danger to America. Seven years later, on the eve of a Supreme Court decision, it seems to be paying off. In fact he's so confident that he's already begun rolling back basic protections from his site. This includes getting rid of fact-checking because there's a "liberal bias" no longer banning hate speech since it infringes on "free speech". Okay.

If you need any more convincing of the importance of TikTok - Elon Musk wants to buy it. He bought Twitter and two years later it's a cesspool of racism, misinformation, and overall terrible vibes. Elon bought Twitter and turned it into a powerful arm of right-wing propaganda - now imagine what he could do with a video-based platform like TikTok.

Outside of being profitable, there is another reason the app has found itself in the crosshairs of Congress - because it's not American-controlled, our government can't fully control the narrative. TikTok leans left and towards facts and education. The app has inadvertently become a countermeasure to nationalist propaganda over the past 4 years "radicalizing" the youth against the status quo.

What Can We Do?

TikTok users are seeing through the fake moral and national security outrage. In the wake of a possible ban, American users have been flocking to TikTok alternatives that China ACTUALLY controls. It's almost poetic, really. Right now Red Note, a Chinese version of TikTok was number 1 in the app store in the US.

All I have to say is Dǒu yīn wànsuì - and add me on Duolingo.