The United States government is planning to ban TikTok, a short-form vertical video platform popular among its 170 million American users with half this audience being under 25.
This possibility became real when the U.S. House of Representatives passed the bill that could potentially ban TikTok or force its divestment from ByteDance. It passed with 352 votes supporting it and 65 members voting against it.
Both sides of the House supported this bill saying that since it is owned by ByteDance which is required by the Chinese Communist Party to collaborate with them to “support, assist, and cooperate” with China’s intelligence community under Article VII of China’s National Intelligence Law of 2017.
Ranking member Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-IL) pointed out that the bipartisan legislation would protect American social media users by driving the divestment of foreign adversary-controlled apps to ensure that Americans are protected from the digital surveillance and influence operations of regimes that could weaponize their personal data against them.
But the real reason the U.S government wants to ban TikTok is that the app is becoming a dominant platform news platform for Americans under 30 years according to Chairman Mike Gallagher (R-WI).
“This is my message to TikTok: break up with the Chinese Communist Party or lose access to your American users. America’s foremost adversary has no business controlling a dominant media platform in the United States. TikTok’s time in the United States is over unless it ends its relationship with CCP-controlled ByteDance,” he added.
TikTok has become an important news source for most millennials and Gen Z, especially with the ongoing Israel war on Gaza against Palestinians. Major US media including the New York Times, Los Angeles Times and Washington Times have been biased in their coverage in favour of Israel using passive voice when writing about Palestinian victims and active voice when its Israeli victims.
The US has also been funding Israel with the country getting $17.6 billion just last month in military assistance under the Israel Security Supplemental Appropriations Act which is just one of the ways the US is funding and arming the war.
Most young users have been switching to consuming coverage of the war from American media platforms since it is distorted, incomplete, and heavily pro-Israeli to watching video reports on TikTok.
The app had been accused of pushing pro-Palestinian content but TikTok creators and social media experts say the reality is more nuanced.
“TikTok is used as a scapegoat, and there’s a lot of villainizing young people,” said digital strategist Annie Wu Henry.
“Young people on TikTok are hearing firsthand from Palestinians and seeing the harm that Israel is committing with their own eyes. What some adults think is brainwashing is actually a grass-roots, youth-led movement in support of Palestine,” said Aidan Kohn-Murphy, founder of Gen-Z for Change.
Former U.S. President Donald Trump had tried to ban the app nearly four years ago and failed. But he’s now against the current bill saying “There are a lot of people on TikTok that love it. There are a lot of young kids on TikTok who will go crazy without it.”
“If you get rid of TikTok, Facebook and Zuckerschmuck will double their business. I don’t want Facebook, who cheated in the last Election, doing better. They are a true Enemy of the People!” he added.
“I don’t get the rush to do it in the middle of an election year when we are making tremendous progress with Gen-Z,” said Trump ally and GOP strategist Alex Bruesewitz.
After passing the House of Representatives, the bill will go to the Senate and then if passed under the vote, is presented to Biden who will either veto the bill or sign it.
However, it faces an uncertain path in the Senate since the bill will undergo a thorough review with leaders going to consult relevant committee chairs to determine the path of the bill.
“We do things slowly over here, and this takes time,” said Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas.
“There are a lot of things that haven’t been thought through here. The first thing that was said was, ‘Ban TikTok. Let’s ban it.’ That was last year. Now we’ve done this jujitsu, and it’s a forced sale. It’s a forced sale set up to fail,” said Rep. Maxwell Frost (D-Fla.)
The app’s leaders have also responded with TikTok executive Michael Beckerman saying that the the bill raised “serious constitutional concerns” and was “being rushed through at unprecedented speed without even the benefit of a public hearing.”
