In March, House lawmakers passed a bill with bipartisan support that would give TikTok’s Beijing-based parent company, ByteDance, six months to sell the video app or potentially have it banned in the United States. That deadline was later extended, and the president could extend it even further if there is a progress toward a sale. The bill would need to pass in the Senate before President Biden can sign it into law.
What’s interesting is that the popular platform, developed with Chinese technology, isn’t accessible in China. The Chinese have a similar version of TikTok, called Douyin – both owned by ByteDance.
Even more noteworthy is that, according to The Independent, popular sites like BBC, Wikipedia, Gmail, YouTube and Instagram are all blocked in mainland China. Discord and Snapchat, both popular with young people, are also banned. Many sites are blocked because they aren’t willing to follow the Chinese government’s internet regulations on privacy, user-safety and data collection.
So the question becomes, is the Chinese government overreaching or are we, as Americans, not as concerned or zealous in our attempt to keep ourselves, particularly the younger generation, safe?
Social media apps collecting user’s data has become the norm. Therefore, the move by Congress has been largely criticized since TikTok is primarily used by young people, who feel they are being targeted. According to The New York Times (also banned in China), two-thirds of American teenagers use TikTok. Understandably, most of them are opposed to a potential ban, citing that all apps collect personal data.
The U.S. government is concerned for security on a national. But the issue really “hits home” for parents. While parents can’t control data collection, they can control if and how social media is being used.
