Tiktok banned1/16/2024 ![]() ![]() Opinion: When it comes to TikTok, the US is blind ![]() You do that by passing a strong national data privacy law that bans companies from collecting more data about us than they need to provide us with the service we’ve requested. The only way to stop governments from weaponizing data that private companies like TikTok collect and store about us is to stop those companies from collecting and storing so much information in the first place. While companies collect this data for the purpose of extracting profit and getting users hooked on their products, governments have long taken an interest. Many companies sell the data they harvest to third parties, who sell it to fourth and fifth and sixth parties. Companies that engage in the practice claim that they track users’ activities online in order to deliver more targeted advertising and content. Much of what you do in the digital space on all of your devices is tracked. It’s a matter of common knowledge that Instagram, YouTube, Venmo, Snapchat and most of the other apps on your phone engage in similar data harvesting business practices to TikTok. ![]() The rush to ban TikTok – or force its sale to a US company – is a convenient distraction from what our elected officials should be doing to protect us from government manipulation and commercial surveillance: passing basic data privacy legislation. TikTok users are making fun of Congress members for their questions to app CEO Shou Chew Capitol building in Washington on June 9, 2022. Even conservative Republican Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky agrees that banning the app would violate Americans’ right to free speech.Ī ban on TikTok wouldn’t even be effective: The Chinese government could purchase much of the same information from data brokers, which are largely unregulated in the US. Any proposal that results in TikTok’s effective ban in the US would almost certainly fall apart under a legal challenge, as the American Civil Liberties Union and other experts have asserted. The Washington Post, the New York Times and CNN all have their own official TikTok accounts, as do numerous candidates for office, elected officials, academics, journalists, religious leaders and political figures. The US government can’t ban you from posting or watching TikTok videos any more than they can stop you from reading a foreign newspaper like the Times of India or writing an opinion piece for The Guardian. The strong free speech protections enshrined in the First Amendment bar the government from extreme actions like criminalizing an app that millions of people use to express their opinions and ideas. The law is vague enough that some experts have raised concerns that it could threaten individual internet users with lengthy prison sentences for taking steps to “evade” a ban, like side-loading an app (i.e., bypassing approved app distribution channels such as the Apple store) or using a virtual private network (VPN).īut banning TikTok isn’t just foolish and dangerous, it’s also unconstitutional. Opinion: Utah's startling new rules for kids and social media 686), for example, would enable the Commerce Department to engage in extraordinary acts of policing, criminalizing a wide range of activities with companies from “hostile” countries and potentially even banning entire apps simply by declaring them a threat to national security. Several of the proposals wending their way through Congress would grant the federal government unprecedented new powers to control what technology we can use and how we can express ourselves – authority that goes far beyond TikTok. It’s regrettable that so many US lawmakers want to add us to that list. There is a small but growing number of countries in the world so authoritarian that they block popular apps and websites entirely. A core characteristic of China’s censorship regime is the “Great Firewall,” which blocks foreign social media apps, news sites and even educational resources like Wikipedia, under the guise of protecting national security.Īs they hyperventilate about TikTok, US politicians are so eager to appear “tough on China” that they’re suggesting we build our very own Great Firewall here at home. While many governments engage in internet censorship and surveillance, China certainly has one of the most sophisticated and draconian systems.
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