Everyone’s favorite addictive video platform TikTok could soon be permanently banned if America had its way, but why is one of the most backward countries on earth seeking to permanently remove a single phone app?
TikTok Shou Zi Chew CEO testified before Congress on Thursday about a possible ban on the clock app.
As always, these American hearings were a bunch of nearly extinct, mostly Republican corpses pulled from the depths of Tartarus, asking all the questions, despite the fact that they had no idea how to find the flashlight setting on their phone to save their lives.
Half of the “gotcha” questions posed to Chew were undermined by a lack of basic technical knowledge, while others held TikTok accountable for very real problems the app caused with no solutions.
So let’s dive into the basics of this congressional hearing. Allow me to explain in smooth cerebral terms whether TikTok is doomed to visit Vine in hell, where all the fun apps spend the rest of their lives.
Why is the US trying to ban TikTok?
Frankly, President Biden is looking to get tough on China, and TikTok is one of the many ways it can do that.
“Data security” is not important to the US, although those two words are used a lot when people talk about the app. If data security were a real concern, the country would go after Meta, Google, and one of the thousands of other platforms that collect data and sell it.
The main concern for TikTok is that its parent company, ByteDance, is based in China. The concern for Americans is that at any time Chinese agencies may demand information on one of TikTok’s 15 billion active users in the United States.
Apparently, the US isn’t too concerned about whether they hoard our data and use it in any way they like.
As I said, this is more about China as an entity than our “precious data” being “destroyed” or one of the many other buzzwords being thrown around the TikTok conference.
“Let me be clear: ByteDance is not an agent of China or any other country,” Zhou told a congressional hearing.
According to him, TikTok is headquartered in Singapore and Los Angeles, and not even in mainland China.
So in the end, Biden wants ByteDance to sell TikTok to an American company, and China would very much like the US to focus on its business rather than force the sale of one of its most successful products.
The two countries are playing a tug of war, and Douyin is the rope.
clownWhat happened at the congressional hearings?
Footage of Thursday’s hearing emerged (ready to go) on TikTok, showing a wild display of self-aggrandizing Republicans speaking for it without actually letting Zhou speak for himself.
That’s bad, because it’s a great opportunity for US politicians to voice real security concerns around one of the largest apps on the planet. Alas, they’re not exactly known for intellectual takedowns ( except, of course , Alexandria Ocasio -Cortez ).
Here, a politician asks Chew a crazy question, gives him two seconds to answer, then immediately cuts him off to complete her (probably) rehearsed sentiment about how bad TikTok is.
Here’s a video in which a politician asks TikTok how to access users’ Wi-Fi. Yes. I am serious now.
Finally, my personal favorite is a video in which a politician accuses TikTok of using our front-facing cameras to see if our students are stretching on certain content so it can push content further to us.
It’s a crazy claim, but no worse than a politician asking how TikTok knows exactly how old its users are. My guy, when we sign up for the app, we put our age in, like pretty much every social media platform.
When Zhou finally got a chance to speak and defend himself, he attacked the fact that the US also has social corporations that misuse data and sell it. Drag them.
If the US really cared about data privacy, it would just have incomprehensible laws around sales and collection. But, it won’t, because that’s just shooting at the feet of the country.
What the hell is the Texas plan?
My last point for today is: what is “Project Texas”?
If you’ve seen any video of any congressional hearings, chances are this item came up.
Essentially, this is TikTok’s promise to ensure that US data from TikTok only exists in the US and is only overseen by Americans. It also pledged to delete all U.S. data backed up on servers abroad.
If you’re worried about foreign objects misusing “sensitive data”, that’s a decent premise.
However, U.S. Republicans attending congressional hearings seemed less convinced by the idea.
Most of the complaints revolve around the word “Texas” in the name because of course they are.
I guess some American dinosaurs just really want TikTok banned forever and don’t understand why.
However, in a country that banned drag queens and reinstated racist laws, it’s not uncommon for a popular app to be banned.
Let’s go backward!