As college campuses across the United States are taken over by pro-Gaza protests, I’ve yet to see the debate of “Is this another generational cause or is something more sinister at play?” Truth be told, it is likely a little of both, but the TikTok ban is providing a solution and a constitutional problem to this modern dilemma.
Last Wednesday, President Biden signed legislation giving TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, six months to find a buyer and another 3 to close the deal. Meaning, selling the app or facing a nationwide ban. The crackdown on TikTok would take aim at app stores, like Apple or Google Play, who would face penalties if they allow updates or continued downloads of the video app.
This is months away and we are in the middle of an election, so anything could happen. What’s important to note is legislators are less concerned about the content being shared and more concerned with the information users are giving our frenemy, the Chinese Communist Party.
However, it should be the other way around.
ByteDance is an internet company whose headquarters are in Beijing and is incorporated in the Cayman Islands. It was founded in 2012 and aside from TikTok, it also owns social media app Douyin and the news platform Toutiao. The latter two are only available in China. It is these deep ties to China that have governments concerned. Many countries have restricted TikTok on government devices, including the United States, Australia, Belgium, Canada, France, the United Kingdom, and several others. Other countries like Afghanistan, India, Nepal, Taiwan, and China have banned the app completely.
TikTok has never been allowed in China. Instead, TikTok’s parent company has Douyin, a very similar video-sharing app, which adheres to Beijing’s censorship rules. If a company cannot operate its app within the confines of the country they are established in, it is a red flag. ByteDance is not only getting information from its users, it is controlling the algorithms which affects what users see. Yes, this is like other social media outlets except the clear ties to China have caused alarm bells.
One-third of adults aged 18-29 (early Gen Z and late-born Millennials) receive their news from TikTok, according to Pew Research Center. While headlines about local pro-Gaza protests fell out of the news cycle, they did not fall out of young adults’ TikTok feeds. In fact, the New York Post interviewed a person who makes a living off of the video app claiming “[the app has] become a cesspool of hate and misinformation.”
When thousands of students are chanting “Death to Israel” and “Death to America”, does the government have a right to cut out the tool being used to radicalize our children? TikTok has become more than just another social media app. A Google study found nearly 40% of Gen Z use TikTok or Instagram to search online over the tech giant’s search engine. While Elon Musk is claiming he wants X to be the “everything app”, China has already beaten him to it! Jokes aside and more importantly, TikTok is not only gaining information about its users, it is also manipulating what they see.
This is likely why Gaza, a place that many Gen Z-ers likely hadn’t heard of until October 7th, has become ‘an embodiment of the 1968 Vietnam protests.’ Except for, you know, none of these kids have any idea of what it’s like to be drafted. Our country is not currently at war, and while everyone wrongly thinks America gave Israel the land, it was actually the British government who established Israel because Palestine (which is still not fully recognized as a country, and in recent times the US has blocked full membership to the UN) was a British territory in 1948.
Constitutionally, we have the right to freedom of speech. People can say they hate other people and they can speak out against the government. There is a lot our freedom of speech provides us as people, but should companies and algorithms be allowed those same rights? This is now the legal dilemma that Biden’s TikTok ban highlights. The case will likely hit our court system somewhere around October 2024 under First Amendment infringement. If allowed to operate under the same First Amendment protections as people, algorithms and big tech companies will have more power and ways to manipulate their users than ever before.
Even if this ban is deemed unconstitutional, a simple workaround would be to provide app stores incentives to no longer allow updates of TikTok, thus deeming it unusable. Stores already do this for apps that don’t work, have not been updated to new operating systems, or carry illegal content. However, their ban stops short of social media outlets that allow sharing of false information (aka all of them).
We have already seen the effects of social media algorithms sharing false or misleading content and in turn, manipulating people. A Pew study released Monday found most Americans believe social media companies have too much influence in politics and censor political viewpoints they object to. It’s not just a Republican belief anymore, the study went on to say it is a growing feeling among Democrats as well. Yet, we use it as a new source, to get information share ideas, and “feel” connected (even though several studies have shown people feel actually less connected while using social media).
I almost always use social media for work. I don’t have a TikTok and I have no intention of having one so long as China is involved. But for those of you who do, or have family who do, consider the following: Many people in America were willing to give up their freedoms to protect others during the pandemic. The question now is are those same people, and even the ones who weren’t willing to give up those freedoms, prepared to give up a small part of freedom of speech in order to protect America’s national security?
Krystina Alarcon Carroll contributes features and columns for Barrett Media. She has experience in almost every facet of the industry including: digital and print news; live, streamed, and syndicated TV; documentary and film productions. Her prior employers have included NY1 and Fox News Digital and the Law & Crime Network. You can find Krystina on X (formerly twitter) @KrystinaAlaCarr.
