2020 was a year that will live on in history for many things: the pandemic and the election, but mostly, it was the rise of TikTok!
While we were all locked away in our houses listening to the news change up what was going on with COVID-19 week after week, people found solace in the app. It had people from all over the world going and making silly videos as a way to give some hope in a dark time.
Now, five years later, we are on the verge of that app being banned. It was rumored since 2020 that the app would be banned, but nothing ever came out of it until last year when Congress finally drew up a bill, and it passed. Now, it is up to the Supreme Court to determine the fate of the app.
Now, honestly, this whole thing is stupid!
Trump started the whole conversation in 2020, trying to get the company to sell to an American company, but Bytedance, the parent company of TikTok, said no. The government says they are concerned about the potential of data leaks to the Chinese government, but apps like Facebook and Instagram leak at least twice a year, and nothing ever happens!
Why is the government so concerned about the potential of something happening that never has? It’s because the app is owned by a non-American company, aka the government can’t control what they do and what they allow on the platform.
You can find videos about America from all ends of the spectrum. From videos saying that democrats are doing population control with the COVID-19 vaccine to Trump being a shadow puppet for Russia and the country slowly becoming communist and everything in between.
TikTok originally agreed to let an American security company, Oracle, be its “trusted technology partner.” In 2022, Oracle then began to vet the algorithm to ensure it was not manipulated by the Chinese government as a part of Project Texas.
On Jan. 10, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments from TikTok and the government. We are supposed to get a decision by the 15th, which is when this paper comes out. I have heard that this whole thing makes me even more upset.
TikTok was wondering why they were getting targeted when apps like Shein and Temu, which are also Chinese-owned, are not being threatened with being banned, and they ask for more personal information than TikTok does. They also said that they would be okay with having a warning of the potential that the Chinese government could manipulate some content, but the government said it wasn’t good enough.
The arguments for the government make it seem as if they think of its people as stupid. They are worried people don’t know that a Chinese company owns TikTok and that elected officials could doubt the content.
People have always had doubts about elected officials since at least Watergate! That is nothing new.
This all boils down to Congress being upset that they can’t control the narrative like they can with apps like Facebook and Instagram. Congress seems to think that its people are dumb ducks that they need to guide, but the people of TikTok have proven to show otherwise.
In response to the arguments, users on TikTok have done what the government doesn’t want them to do. They have made memes out of there being potential Chinese spies making their For You page and even have joined the Chinese version of TikTok called Rednote.
It’s not shocking to this Gen Z journalist that this happened. We do not take kindly to being insinuated that we don’t understand what we are getting into with apps.
I do believe that the Supreme Court will order a stay and wait until Trump is back in office for him and his people to figure out what to do with it. If the President-elect keeps his word, then we should continue to have TikTok until they are genuinely proven to be a security threat.
Because right now, all I can see is the potential censorship that the book 1984 by George Orwell warned about.
