There have been threats of banning TikTok before, but this time the U.S. House is taking it too far.
On Wednesday, March 13th, the House of Representatives passed legislation that could force TikTok to be deprived of control by its current Chinese parent company, or be banned.
American lawmakers have stated they are following through with this ban to protect U.S. data from the Chinese government, but that does not mean our data will still be entirely protected.
The estimated 84 billion dollar value of TikTok would most likely only be afforded by a company like Google or Microsoft, and would not make American users’ data more secure. This would only give the new company a supply of information about everyone’s data. Google has access to our emails, documents, web-browsing behavior, and more but videos watched on TikTok are something they do not have, now they could.
These lawmakers are entirely focused on TikTok, but are not applying any of this protection to our data on all the other apps we use.
TikTok has blown up on this topic and there has even been a warning when opening the TikTok app about the ban. From comedic reactions to serious ones, they are all representing what good TikTok has done.
TikTok has not only created a community like no other app before but has genuinely helped people whether it’s with their small businesses, raising awareness, or raising money.
Other social media platforms simply can’t compare to the inclusivity of TikTok. People listen to others on this app more than anywhere else, and it has truly contributed to educating people on a diverse range of topics. A majority of the people who regularly use TikTok get most of their news on the app itself, and there seems to be more interest in learning about it through TikTok rather than on television, in newspapers or on websites.
What has been shocking through all of this is that lawmakers are pushing a TikTok ban during a very high-stakes election. There are a plethora of other subjects they should be advocating for and worrying about, TikTok should not be one of them.
Surprising is that a good amount of members of Congress or anyone in a similar field have TikTok and use it to communicate their campaigns. Even the president recently made a TikTok account, despite saying he would sign a TikTok ban into law if brought to his desk.
The focus for TikTok needs to be creating better privacy rules that prohibit these companies from exploiting any data, rather than trying to merge it with another social media platform that is most likely only hungry for data.