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By now, most people are aware that the U.S. government is attempting to ban TikTok within America. Leading the charge are U.S. congressional leaders who are convinced that TikTok represents a very real threat to national security. TikTok, after all, is owned by Chinese company ByteDance, which in turn is based in Beijing and beholden (we are told) to the Chinese Communist Party. And, thus, we certainly don’t want TikTok spying on us and turning America into a giant surveillance network.
Who’s changing their minds on TikTok?
But here’s the thing – even long-time foes of TikTok are now rethinking the case for banning TikTok. Notably, former president Donald Trump now admits that his earlier decision to ban TikTok might have been a mistake. As he sees it, the recently introduced legislation to ban TikTok, which recently passed the House with a huge bipartisan majority, might be used to target other social media platforms.
While the new legislation says it targets only social media platforms from adversarial nations – such as Russia, China, Iran, and North Korea – it’s easy to see how it might become a so-called “Trojan Horse” for banning other social media platforms. For example, consider Mr. Trump’s social media platform, Truth Social. If the White House decides that it’s overridden with Russian bots, might it try to lump Truth Social into the same category as TikTok?
Moreover, there appear to be contradictory signals coming out of the White House these days. President Joe Biden says he’s willing to sign any bipartisan TikTok bill that comes out of the Senate, but at the same time, he’s still using TikTok as a campaign tool. If you go over to his TikTok feed (@BidenHQ), you can see a wide mix of campaign messaging, converted into short-form TikTok videos. For example, Biden’s “I’m Not a Young Guy” TV ad is now being used as a potential viral social media stunt to bring attention to Trump’s age. And, of course, the feed includes plenty of “gotcha” moments from Trump that appear to portray him as a slightly loony, slightly sinister, authoritarian leader who should never be allowed to come to power.
TikTok is still a national security threat
What’s potentially more worrisome is how TikTok is starting to insert itself into the conversation on important national security matters. Take the current hue and cry over “illegal” (oops, we can’t use that word anymore!) immigration. According to a recent “60 Minutes” segment on CBS, undocumented immigrants are hunting around TikTok for tips and tricks on how to infiltrate the U.S. border. The “60 Minutes” segment showed a bunch of migrants casually making their way through a section of the border fence that had been cut and exposed.
Or what about the current debate over Israel and humanitarian aid to Gaza? According to a growing number of internet sleuths, TikTok is shifting public support away from Israel by manipulating its algorithm to show pro-Palestinian and pro-Gaza content. The latest conspiracy theory, in fact, suggests that the real reason why there’s a push to ban TikTok is to clamp down on this anti-Israeli sentiment.
And what about free speech?
Of course, any effort to ban TikTok is going to need to take into account free speech in America. We simply can’t use this TikTok legislation as a way to censor free and independent voices, or to prevent content we don’t like or approve of from bubbling up to the surface.
That’s why the case for banning TikTok has suddenly become much more complex than it was just a year ago. Back then, all you had to do was mention the Chinese Communist Party, and the case for a ban was clear.
But now that a few prominent individuals are flip-flopping on the TikTok ban, and the legislation is shaping up as a potential censorship tool, the debate is much more complex. Let’s hope that cooler heads prevail, and our congressional leaders take the right step on TikTok before it’s too late.
