Congress Says TikTok Is A Security Risk. Do We Care?
4/24/24
Supposedly, TikTok poses a national security risk. That’s why yesterday Congress overwhelming passed anti-TikTok legislation that would force the Chinese company that owns TikTok to sell their app within a year or be banned from U.S. app stores and web hosting companies.
Translation: China, we’re addicted to TikTok, and we don’t know what to do about it.
Supporters of the ban fear that the Chinese government may be spying on us and spreading propaganda through the app. Really? Around 170 million Americans use the platform. With all those users, you would think that someone would’ve noticed suspicious activity, like maybe more kung fu videos or videos with Mandarin subtitles. But, no, nothing.
I’m not an avid user of TikTok, but it looks pretty harmless from what I’ve seen. If the Chinese are trying to take over our minds with cute animal videos and videos of American kids dancing and performing funny stunts, then they’ve already won. If fact, if given the option of supporting the ban or letting the Chinese continue to spy on us, I think most American TikTok users would vote to continue being shills for the Chinese government. (Those TikTok videos are just so hypnotizing!)
According to a Pew Research poll released last December, only 38% of Americans supported banning TikTok. The rest said, “We’ll get right back to you. We just gotta’ finish watching that TikTok video where the cat rides the Roomba!”
When TikTok first came out in September 2016, the idea was to let users create, watch, and share 15-second videos set to music and sound effects. Sounds stupid, right? Who knew it would catch on to become the sixth most popular social media platform according to a recent survey.
- YouTube
- TikTok
But don’t worry TikTok, you’re number one on Congress’ Most Wanted list.
#watchIt’sNFLTimeonTikTok
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