House passes ban on TikTok
CVHS students might lose access to TikTok because the House of Representatives passed a bill to ban TikTok 352-65 on March 13. It is now up to the Senate and while the bill does not exactly ban Tiktok, it effectively will.
If the bill is passed, it would give ByteDance six months to sell the American portion of TikTok to an American company or face a ban from the US. However, finding a buyer will be challenging as TikTok’s size comes with a huge price tag.
“I would be very disappointed if TikTok was banned,” says freshman Josie Franklin.
The House wants to ban TikTok because Byte-Dance, the company that owns TikTok, is a Chinese company. Under the National Intelligence Law from 2017, all Chinese companies and employees are forced to give up data if required by the CCP.
Because of this, the House is concerned about China collecting sensitive American data and using TikTok as a platform to spread propaganda and influence Americans. The concern is so high that it passed the house with a staggering super majority of 80 percent in favor.
Massive bipartisan support pushed the bill through the House very quickly in only six days. President Joe Biden stated that he would sign the bill if it passed the Senate. Former President Trump opposes the ban because it would empower existing American social media companies.
Even with massive support, the Senate will not decide on the bill for at least three months as it plans to scrutinize the bill and analyze every detail. If the bill passes the Senate, TikTok will most likely challenge it in court, citing an infringement on the First Amendment, adding months before the ban could be imposed.
With over 100 million monthly active users in the US, a TikTok ban would affect many people. The bill has already faced pushback from people who use TikTok regularly, especially from its younger users. Many creators on TikTok and businesses that use it for promotion have been vocal about the potential harm to their livelihoods that a ban would cause.
Many students at CVHS use TikTok and would be affected. Though it may take a while before a ban can be put into effect, its future is still uncertain.
“I use TikTok regularly and would have to find a new social media platform,” said junior Cole Murphy.
I respect the decision to ban TikTok in the U.S., as the application has a quite horrenious government behind it, the Chinese Communist Party (CPP), has been infamously known to use their power to inflict harm upon their own citizens, therefore their massive amount of information gathered of half of the U.S population is a great deal to their power.
there are bigger issues our government should be worrying about rather than banning a social media platform
I think that the government doesn’t have a real grasp on what Tik Tok actually is because they are not the demographic. I think this causes them to judge it unfairly.
Although I don’t personally use TikTok and this wouldn’t affect me that much, it shouldn’t be banned as it infringes on our first amendment rights and would give Google and Meta a chokehold on the social media landscape.
TikTok has previously been used to track down protesters in Hong Kong so I can see the security risk it brings being operated by China. Forcing TikTok to sell to a U.S. company seems like a completely reasonable decision to me.
I feel like a ban on TikTok would cause a big clash between the government and those who favor TikTok (which is most of us). This ultimately reminds me of the time when they banned Vine.