Everything you need to know about the TikTok ban
First they came for the clock app…
Yesterday, President Joe Biden signed a bill that would potentially ban TikTok, the popular social media app famous for mis/information and dancing. Although an earlier version of this bill was tossed up in the Senate, it ultimately failed, according to NBC News. They reported, “[This bill is] a shift from an earlier House-passed bill that included a six-month window that could have triggered a TikTok ban before the November election.”
However, Senate Democrats were adamant about extending the deadline for TikTok to sell; they wanted to wait until after the election. Under the new legislation, TikTok will have up to twelve months to sell or face a nationwide ban. The initial deadline is next January, but the President will have the power to extend the deadline by ninety days if they “[determine] the company’s made progress toward a sale.”
Nonetheless, Chinese-owned ByteDance is opposed to selling, according to Reuters. Additionally, NBC News noted that relinquishing TikTok would mean relinquishing its algorithm, which is the bread and butter of the app. Losing this trade secret would put the company at a disadvantage.
Richard Windsor, who studies the tech sector, wrote, “This algorithm is Chinese home-grown technology, and the Chinese state has said on multiple occasions that [it] considers technology like this to be important for its national security. Hence, it will not allow Chinese technology of this nature to leave its shores or to be in the hands of countries which it considers unfriendly.”
This ban is the latest entry in the ongoing hostility between the United States and China. According to Bloomberg, the United States and China’s relationship is gradually worsening. Their hostility is tied to the United State’s staunch anti-Communist stance, which dates back to the Cold War.
During the Cold War, fears about communism led to adverse consequences such as state surveillance. Multi-hyphenate Paul Robeson was kicked out of the country for suspicions of communist ties.
This anti-Communist sentiment persists today. In an Op-Ed for MSNBC, Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi, D.Ill, wrote, “This week, Congress and President Joe Biden took the next step to prevent the Chinese Communist Party from using Americans’ data against us.”
ByteDance has denied it, but many politicians have doubled down on the insinuation that TikTok is connected to the communist party.
Yet, for others, there are other reasons lawmakers made this ban so hastily.
According to Vox, lawmakers and celebrities have spoken out against TikTok allegedly spreading pro-Palestinian sentiments. TikTok denied this claim and also met with celebrities and agencies to quell fears of anti-Semitism. The problem is not the algorithm, Rebecca Jennings argues in the article. Jennings said: “[TikTok] is an app dominated by young people, and young people happen to sympathize with Palestine.”
We are seeing these sympathies punished in real time. As Jennings notes in the article, “Which social media posts count as hate speech or grounds for serious repercussions seems to be determined by whether the poster supports Israel or Palestine.” She then names Susan Sharandon and Melissa Barerra, who lost job opportunities for support of Palestine.
Yet, Amy Schumer and Sarah Silverman have posted anti-Palestinian sentiments and they are not losing jobs. Moreover, these same celebrities claim that supporting Palestine is supporting antisemitism.
Notably, Sacha Baron Cohen said that Jewish people have not seen this level of antisemitism since the Holocaust, according to Vox. This exaggeration is a gross misrepresentation of legitimate concerns about genocide.
These concerns have reached the youth through TikTok, and some feel that this is the real reason for the TikTok ban. When the legislation was first introduced, Black studies scholar Dr. CBS tweeted that this was a red scare of 2023.
After all, the implications are there. Last week, the Supreme Court declined to hear a case that challenged the right to peacefully protest. With news of a potential TikTok ban, it can easily feel like 1964 again. And maybe it’s time we started treating it like that.
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