TikTok is a popular social media platform that many young people use on a daily basis. Like many of you reading this, you probably know that TikTok is at risk for a ban in the United States. Over 170 million people in America have the app. If TikTok does get banned, many Americans would be upset. The owner of TikTok, Shou Zi Chew, has gone to court over the app to see if they could agree to a compromise. So far the House of Representatives voted to pass the bill onto the senate to continue the voting process. If it passes the Senate, it will be up to Joe Biden to decide TikTok’s fate.
The reasoning behind the American government wanting to ban the app is because the owning company, Bytedance, is based in China. There has been speculation and debate for a while whether or not TikTok is stealing data from U.S. citizens. However, there is no proof that this is actually happening; it is just a speculation. Mr. Chew has been swamped by many members of the U.S government with countless questions that are either unrelated to what’s actually happening, or the representatives not understanding technology.
In my opinion, I believe that this is an unjustified lawsuit. The bill itself seems to target TikTok because it is a non-American company. Instagram, Snapchat, and other American owned social media companies have never been banned by the United States government or even considered to be banned. In my opinion, the House of Representatives seems very uneducated when it comes to technology. Removing TikTok strips away our First Amendment right. If TikTok is banned, so many Americans will lose their primary source of income. TikTok has been a connector to all sorts of people on a daily basis and has had a positive impact on the youth.
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