There has been a new push in Congress to out right ban or heavily regulate TikTok. I’m neither a user nor am I fan of social media in general. However, to ban or heavily regulate the most popular social media platform in our country, and do nothing to regulate its competitors, is Congress caving to the anti-China sentiment.
You see TikTok originated in China. It was started by a Chinese company called Byte Dance, that has many Chinese and U.S. investors- one of them being the Chinese government. Proponents of a ban claim personal information from TikTok users can be accumulated and used by the Chinese government against America and its citizens.
Sorry, but I don’t buy that. Today’s TikTok is U.S. based. Top officials, from the CEO on down, have nothing to do with China. It has thousands of investors, mostly U.S. citizens, that are making good money, because the app is very appealing to the masses.
Another reason legislators see the need to heavily regulate TikTok, is that in their view it poisons the minds of its millions of young users. Much like Instagram, it provides short video clips that sometimes can be political in nature. They claim Hamas, Isis and other radical groups utilize TikTok to recruit and influence young audiences.
Couldn’t the same, however, be said, about the aforementioned Instagram and Facebook and X and on and on. If we are going to regulate one social media company, then we should regulate them all. That, in this writer’s opinion, however, would definitely abuse first amendment rights that we all are afforded in our Constitution.
One of the more sensible member in Congress, send Rand Paul, has brought up to more interesting reasons a TikTok ban, or heavy regulations makes no sense. He says”
“TikTok is banned in China,” Paul said. “We’re thinking – or people who want to ban it are thinking – Wow, we’re going to really defeat the Chinese communists, by becoming Chinese authoritarians and banning it in our country? TikTok is banned in China. So, we’re going to emulate the Chinese communists by banning it in our country?”
And then he sensibly makes the argument that a ban or regulation would harm American investors. He adds,
“We know that the Chinese government does demand things, but we don’t know that any information really is going from TikTok to any of these people in China,” he said, noting that a provable crime is necessary to take property from Americans.
Just a side note, there are thousands of American investors. They would take a bath financially if TikTok were to be banned or heavily regulated.
Rather than Congress passing more regulatory laws- don’t we have enough regulations on our lives- wouldn’t it make more sense to encourage parents to regulate their children. It should be their responsibility to know and determine how much social media their children are watching and interacting with.
Parents ought to determine what is right and wrong for their children. Personally, I am tired of government attempting to make those decisions for us. Sure, TikTok can poison young minds if they are viewing inappropriate propaganda. But so can X, or Facebook. The key is parental regulation, not government.
Also leaving it to parents to figure out what’s fact or fiction doesn’t work. They have less of a clue than their children.
As long as the information presented on TikTok (or any other social media site) is accurate I have no problem. It is the Facebooks and X’s where misinformation runs rampant with absolutely no push back on the real facts. If you persist in spreading false information then you should be shut down.