At the time of writing this, TikTok’s ban bill has recently passed the house with a unanimous 50-0 vote, meaning that everyone in the house decided against TikTok’s existence under a chinese company. While teenagers around the world begin to give up on the Legislative Branch, the TikTok bill makes its way toward the Senate, where if it passes, then all it has left is the president. Does this mean TikTok is going to be indefinitely banned? Maybe not, but the chances are not that low.
To elaborate, the person who wrote the bill, Mike Gallagher, does not find the app itself to be dangerous. The danger that many people in the US government are worried about is its parent company: ByteDance. Now, TikTok itself is owned by Doyuin, a short form video hosting service, but Doyuin itself is owned by a Chinese internet company called ByteDance. ByteDance can be accessed by the Chinese government, which is the main reason for the US government to worry. In fact, they are so worried that many government officials are not allowed to own TikTok on their own phone. Mike Gallagher simply states that all he wants is Douyin to sell TikTok to an American company.
Of course one uninformed child may squander the argument that if America owns TikTok, then China will have the exact same problem we are having. That occurrence, however, would never happen because TikTok does not exist in China, in fact, it is banned. While the irony is incredibly hilarious, it creates intense amount speculation among government officials.
In fact, people in the government worry so much that they decided to have a hearing on March 23, 2023. On that specific date, Congress had the CEO of TikTok come to testify and defend the app’s legitimacy. The CEO in question, Shou Zi, did incredibly well and had valid answers, the only issue is that the questions were stupid. The members of Congress who questioned Shou Zi were not very tech literate, meaning they asked questions along the lines of “Will it connect to my internet?” Due to Congress’s definite use of phone books in 2023, no dirt was dug up on TikTok and the app remained legitimate to the watchful eye of the law.
Disregarding the government, it i easy to tell that TikTok’s following is quite large. The app has about 1 billion monthly users, (SearchLogistics) which is about 12.5% of the entire earth. America benefits that number the most with 150 million users. If TikTok were to be banned, a little over a tenth of TikTok’s user base would be gone in a matter of weeks. Would the banning of TikTok be a good decision though?
A survey of 125 students was done at New Castle High School where 67% of students stated TikTok should not be banned while 19% felt uncertain. This means that only 13% of students felt it should be banned, and all the students–from both arguments–had some good reasoning. One student against the banning of TikTok–Junior Emma Rose–stated, “If the government wants to ban the negatives, then they should simply figure out a way to regulate it rather than taking content away completely. Sure, people can get addicted and misinformed, but it’s not as impossible to regulate as one may think; it is hard, but not impossible.” They provide some good points and use a semicolon which means they are smarter than the average adult when it comes to literature knowledge. (It is surprising how many adults do not know the difference between a colon and semicolon) While a good statement, the person is probably unaware that the government can not regulate the app due to it being under a Chinese company, but the rest of their statement makes sense.
A student with a neutral view against the ban, Junior Jasmine Windisch, stated, “TikTok, like other social platforms, is ultimately a means to express speech. While I do think TikTok has a net negative influence (toxic internet culture, TikTok copies on other platforms, mindless ‘Doom-scrolling’ with minimal brain involvement and therefore little educational value and perhaps worsening tendencies, etc outweighing the creativity and expressiveness that can be put into other forms of content), as a means of speech banning the site would be a form of restricting free speech. I would be ecstatic to see it go and end all that side of internet drama, but I understand it would be rather immoral to do so.”
To simplify, Jasmine has brought up incredibly excellent points about the addictive nature of the app and its questionable algorithm that pushes an incredible amount of drama into the user feed. She also notes how TikTok has a large amount of creative content on the app and how banning the app could restrict free speech. Due to the many other short form content apps, banning it would not necessarily be banning free speech, especially since YouTube has existed for the past decade. This person, however, has noted how scrolling through TikTok is mindless and can create bad tendencies. These behaviors are actually being studied by psychologists and recent studies note how short form content can create an addictive dopamine effect that one should definitely research if they do not want their brain to turn to sludge. To put it simply, short-form content is like a bag of chips. Chips are a good snack, but have too many in one sitting, and it gets gross.
A student who sides with the TikTok ban–JoyAnna Asberry–has an interesting take: “It’s brain rotting, not to mention a ploy by the Chinese government. Generally most people who use TikTok begin to lack common sense.”
What a take. It begins with a real concern about the app and then in just one sentence spins itself into a laughable opinion about a silly social media app. There are plenty of content creators who are incredibly intelligent, saying that they lack common sense is a nonsensical jab that shows a “Popular thing is bad” opinion. One could argue that YouTube Shorts is just as brain-rotting or the same with Instagram Reels. They would be right.
Anyway, Senior William Logan gives another argument that sides with the ban. He states that TikTok spreads an incredulous amount of information to younger audiences but then goes on to say how this impacts elections. They note how if you were to ask a student where they get their info, they would say TikTok. Lastly, he states, “TikTok is also a great threat to our national security. The Chinese have been spying on us.”, which is a interesting take.
Now, I was not able to use the entirety of the quote due to some opinions (William likes his politics) but the points stated were the basic gist of it. First of all, the misinformation spreading to younger audiences. A few weeks ago, this argument would be a 50/50 take that would have some back, but since the eclipse, it is much easier to agree. Many children in the middle school had legitimate concerns about some big bad thing happening during the eclipse because TikTok told them. Crazy to believe that children just hear people lie on the internet and trust them wholeheartedly. Eclipse’s have been happening for the last eternity and yet, people thought the world was going to end. Next, politics. This is strange because most of TikTok’s user base is children: People who do not have the ability to vote. Lastly, the Chinese spying. This person does not just suspect, they wholeheartedly believe that the Chinese government is attempting to hack into their Webkinz account and steal their accessories. Despite the suspicion, there is no actual evidence that points to there being Chinese spyware in the TikTok app, so this a blatant accusation. Despite the risks, it is agreeable that security is more preferable than international security.
So, should TikTok be banned, should it not? Who knows, it would die eventually with something else to take its place, everything does. If it does get banned, millions of 8 year olds will cry out in unison. A choir of anguish would befall America for a whole 4 or so minutes before the kids move to Instagram or YouTube and forget to care. If it is not banned then people will continue to use it. Personally, the app seems pretty bad for mental development and it is much more preferable to watch essay length videos. If one uses and enjoy’s TikTok, however, than let them, it is not the end of the world.
