TikTok: Banned or Beneficial
The Olympian does not approve of the March 13 decision in which the House of Representatives passed a bill to force TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, to sell the app to a U.S. company. If ByteDance refuses, the app would be banned. We disagree with this bill and believe everyone should be free to make their own decisions on the apps they use.
The House voted 352-65 to approve the bill and it labels TikTok as a company owned by a foreign adversary. The bill now faces a divded Senate and uncertain fate. President Biden, who created an official TikTok account in February to promote his election campaign, has since said that he would sign the bill into law if it passes.
Lawmakers have long tried to regulate the platform because of its ties to China. They argue that it threatens national security because the CCP could use TikTok to spy on Americans or weaponize it to covertly influence the U.S. public through the amplification or suppression of certain content.
Many Olympian staff see this as an excuse for the U.S. government to control an influential app and its over 1 billion users.
The House argues that TikTok can cause harm, but we believe the same can be said for Instagram and many other platforms. There is no real difference in these apps other than their audience size.
“Lately, [TikTok] has been seeing a surge in socially minded content to reflect the recent Black Lives Matter movement. Like Twitter or Instagram, the app has become a tool for activism and community building,” wrote Chirstian Allaire in a Vogue article.
TikTok has a huge number of followers, most of which are teens and young adults. In the past few years, many protests, movements, and ideas are said to have been successful due to TikTok’s massive influence.
Some staff members at The Olympian support the ban.
“I think those that are in favor of the ban might just be scared of propaganda against Americans…I feel like the government and just people in general are more scared of the political influence that it has on young adults and other people because of the way that information is spread throughout TikTok,” said one Olympian staff member.
Many find that the app has too much influence through its algorithm, which if abused by a “foreign adversary,” could turn Americans against the government.
Throughout the next month, the Senate is set to reconvene and the hearings will continue.
I disagree with the ban, but I don’t think xenophobia is a driving factor of the ban. China has had a record of obtaining data from the US, so Congress’s fear is derived from historical repetition, but with TikTok being owned 60% by global investors, they have to be very careful about keeping our data safe.
I think the ban is unnecessary. Furthermore, I think the amazing art covers my opinion of it since the ban is seemingly unconstitutional, and forcing them to sell is outrageous.
I think this ban would be beneficial to American society, and younger generations. It would hopefully cause kids to be on their electronics less and allow them to find hobbies that stimulate their mind and bring forth knowledge.
I think it is unnecessary decision to ban tiktok not only because it violates the first amendment of bill rights but also it is kind of racist by kicking out companies run by other countries that are far more better than companies inside US selling our personal information officially to companies so they could track us down to buy their products.
I think the ban is unessisary because other apps also take data from people, so there is no point of just getting rid of tiktok.
I think that the ban violates the first amendment, and is a abuse of power.
I think the ban of TikTok is unnecessary and I think it is good that we are covering it because most of its audience are students.