On Tuesday, the Senate passed a bill that would force TikTok’s Chinese owner, ByteDance, to divest its holdings of the popular social-media site or face an effective ban in the United States. The White House has indicated that President Biden will sign the legislation, which – after failing to move ...
In the entirety of my time using the internet, I have heard of the lack of freedom that Chinese citizens face regarding internet access. This has always been held up as indisputable evidence that the CCP is an authoritarian regime, and proof that if the CCP is willing to trample on some freedoms, it’s willing to trample on others.
Just as the U.S. Congress has (somewhat valid) concerns about a foreign entity holding so much sway over such a large platform, it could be stated that these objections are no different from what China claims. If it’s wrong for China to censor and ban platforms, its wrong for the U.S. to do so as well.
Is it concerning how much data is collected by Tik Tok? Yes. But without parroting what’s already been said, this bill comes nowhere close to addressing the key issues of data privacy that it claims to. Banning Tik Tok without addressing the egregious data collection of other platforms is nothing short of hypocracy.
In the entirety of my time using the internet, I have heard of the lack of freedom that Chinese citizens face regarding internet access. This has always been held up as indisputable evidence that the CCP is an authoritarian regime, and proof that if the CCP is willing to trample on some freedoms, it’s willing to trample on others.
Just as the U.S. Congress has (somewhat valid) concerns about a foreign entity holding so much sway over such a large platform, it could be stated that these objections are no different from what China claims. If it’s wrong for China to censor and ban platforms, its wrong for the U.S. to do so as well.
Is it concerning how much data is collected by Tik Tok? Yes. But without parroting what’s already been said, this bill comes nowhere close to addressing the key issues of data privacy that it claims to. Banning Tik Tok without addressing the egregious data collection of other platforms is nothing short of hypocracy.