| Friend,
You might have seen the news: a legislative spending package was just signed into law this morning with a frustrating addition folded in: ByteDance, the owner of TikTok, must divest its ownership stake in the popular platform within 270 days: If ByteDance refuses to sell to a buyer that satisfies the U.S. government, the government will prohibit cloud providers and app stores from distributing TikTok in the United States, making it functionally inaccessible to most U.S.-based users.
Now, let’s be frank: You may not like TikTok and you might even think there’s merit to banning it. Plenty of thoughtful voices have raised data privacy and misinformation concerns about the platform. But there’s more to this story: TikTok isn’t a sole offender, and banning it distracts from the real problem If lawmakers want to rein in the harms of social-media platforms, targeting just one ignores an entire industry predicated on surveillance capitalism. Like all popular platforms — including U.S.-based Meta and Google — TikTok collects far too much user data. An entire business sector is dedicated to harvesting our user data and selling it to be used to discriminate, bombard people with ads and political disinformation and potentially pry into their personal lives.
At best, this ban is a flimsy bandaid on a deep rot — at worst, it’s a distraction from the ongoing work it’ll take to protect our sensitive information online. The government uses “national security” to justify overreach Singling out TikTok for privacy concerns, when so much personal information is available on the open market to U.S. law enforcement and foreign intelligence agencies alike, is a misguided detour from doing what’s needed to protect everyone’s digital rights.
A sell-or-be-banned law targeting one platform runs afoul of the First Amendment and unilaterally closes off essential spaces for people to connect and communicate. The government should never cherry-pick the venues we use to explore new ideas. Many of the same lawmakers who passed this effective ban on TikTok are often heard decrying the rise of censorship — such rhetoric has a distinct whiff of hypocrisy. TikTok has become an important space for younger people and people of color There are approximately 170 million active monthly users in the United States alone who use TikTok to organize, communicate, educate and entertain. Many of these users and these topics are often ignored or neglected by traditional media outlets. Free Press Action will continue to fight for the free-speech rights of these and all other social-media users.
All of this isn’t to say TikTok should get a pass. But it doesn’t make sense to uniquely target and vilify this one app without doing anything to address the surveillance-based business model shared by every social media platform in the United States. We deserve — and should demand — more.
Thank you,
Jenna and the rest of us at Free Press Action
freepress.net
P.S. This is a real setback, but it’s not the end. Free Press Action needs your support so we have the resources we need to fight for your right to connect and communicate — and it’s not up to the government to decide if that’s on TikTok, Facebook or YouTube. |
