Welcome to our weekly column in which a topic of interest, piece of news, relevant opinion, or general request for feedback is presented. We’ll offer the topic du jour and accompanying question, and you have the opportunity to respond with your thoughts.
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This week’s Feedback Friday topic is:
TikTok or TikNot?
Some U.S. legislators are, once again, beating the political drums of war against TikTok, the popular-but-controversial social media video platform owned by China’s ByteDance—an internet technology company headquartered in Beijing and incorporated in the Cayman Islands.
The Washington Post recently reported:
“Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) said…that banning TikTok from the United States over security concerns “should be looked at,” and that members of the Senate Commerce Committee “are looking into that right now.”
“Schumer is one of the highest-ranking U.S. officials to date to float such a ban, which would far exceed restrictions Congress placed last year on federal employees using the app on government devices. While lawmakers have introduced bipartisan legislation to outlaw the app entirely, the measures have not advanced out of committee.
“The broadside comes as TikTok and the Biden administration continue negotiations over a potential oversight framework to assuage U.S. officials’ national security fears about the company, which is owned by Chinese tech giant ByteDance.
“TikTok has previously pushed back on calls for greater restrictions against the app and said it has made a “comprehensive” proposal to the Biden administration to settle security concerns, including heightened privacy guardrails.”
Those security concerns focus on claims of the app covertly mining data of its users for espionage purposes. In another piece focusing on the growing controversy of banning TikTok, the Washington Post wrote:
“Some tech experts argue that the sudden explosion of the bans, coupled with doubts over TikTok’s actual harm, is more a reflection of government groupthink—and an overreaction to an app they don’t entirely understand.
“‘This is the U.S. adopting a Chinese attitude toward the internet: We’re going to block things we don’t want you to see because everything’s a national security threat,’ said Milton Mueller, a Georgia Institute of Technology professor and co-founder of the Internet Governance Project. ‘It’s really a dangerous attitude—not just for American values of free expression but for this whole idea of an open and interconnected internet.’”
Do you use TikTok? Do you think it should be banned from the U.S. altogether? Or do you think it’s a form of political censorship and suppression of American values?
Please share your thoughts by filling out this form. Today’s responses—and all future Feedback Friday responses—will be published in our Monday newsletters after the weekend. AND, several responses from recent topics will appear in our upcoming print magazines!
