The United States removed TikTok early on January 19th. A government was established, in the words of Abraham Lincoln, “by the people, for the people,” but there was little evidence available to the public as to why. Those in power at the 11th hour are aware of how unpopular such paternalistic moves are, and each is doing everything in its power to shift the blame onto others.
Why did the US ban an app used and loved by nearly 170 million Americans? For fear of Chinese propaganda and data collection. It is a far-reaching and unprecedented move. The text of the Protecting Americans from Applications Controlled by Foreign Adversaries Act, passed in April and signed by Joe Biden, states: “This bill would protect Americans from applications controlled by foreign adversaries, such as TikTok. “Distributing, maintaining, or providing Internet hosting services is prohibited.” Both federal appeals courts and the U.S. Supreme Court have found that rationale to be sound.
In their unanimous decision, the U.S. Supreme Court justices wrote: “There is no question that TikTok provides a unique and far-reaching source of expression, participation, and community for more than 170 million Americans. We have determined that the sale is necessary to address widely held national security concerns regarding our relationship with foreign adversaries.”
Despite this, the government has so far not released any evidence that the Chinese Communist Party manipulated Americans’ TikTok feeds. The mere specter of such a “covert operation,” as the U.S. attorney general called it in oral arguments before the Supreme Court, was enough. The United States tried to submit sensitive evidence to the court that may have included the smoking digital gun, but the court refused to consider it, saying the information would be withheld from TikTok’s lawyers. Second reason – TikTok collects sensitive information of users.
In a unanimous opinion, the justices wrote: “Even though China has not yet used its relationship with ByteDance to access the data of U.S. TikTok users, the appellants argue that China provides no basis for concluding that the government’s decision that it may do so is at least not “unreasonable”. Reasonable inferences based on substantial evidence. ”
And here we are. The deadline for TikTok’s parent company ByteDance to announce a sale to a non-Chinese owner has passed without intervention from the U.S. Supreme Court, Biden, or Congress. Donald Trump wants to save the app and is loudly considering issuing an executive order to do so, but that will have to wait for another day. For now, TikTok has been deprecated.
All parties involved are trying hard to avoid responsibility.
From the beginning, ByteDance took an all-or-nothing approach and refused to consider the possibility of selling the app. Two years ago, the Chinese government similarly expressed its opposition to the sale, but has made little comment since then. There were no reports that a deal was nearly reached or that there were any secret meetings between potential buyers and company executives. If the sale were to go ahead, the Chinese government would have to approve the export of TikTok’s algorithms to foreign powers. It was ban or bust. It didn’t have to be that way.
The White House on Friday stuck to its position that TikTok “should be available to Americans, but only because it is owned by the United States.” What did the White House do to make that happen? It was Biden himself who signed the ban or divestment bill. Biden has now said he will not enforce the ban, placing political blame on Trump, who will take office on Monday and give TikTok a 90-day reprieve from the ban.
However, it was Trump himself who issued the ban on TikTok in 2020. Trump now says he wants to “save TikTok” and may order the U.S. Department of Justice to loosen enforcement of the ban. Avoiding an act of Congress recognized by the nation’s highest court is no mean feat of breaking the law, yet it is one possible outcome of our current predicament. So who banned TikTok? Who is to blame?
As I scrolled through the app on Friday, references to the ban ranged from playful jokes about government disconnect.
“It’s not global warming. It’s not access to health care and welfare – it’s boring! With corruption at the top, citizens being shot, and so much going on, now is the perfect time to ban TikTok.” I read the lyrics of @oct_official singing about the current situation. It received approximately 600,000 likes.
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To be furious:
“The saddest part of all this shit is that the U.S. government looked its people right in the face and said, ‘Your voice doesn’t matter and it never did!'” They sell you the American Dream. They sell you the freedom you think you have. And they turn around and strip them away from you and say there’s nothing you can do about it. Fascist countries are banning the app,” @bryanandrewsmusic, who has 2.6 million followers, shouted from his car. His video received 1.3 million likes.
I would like to express my heartfelt condolences.
“It really felt like my parents came to me in the middle of the school year and said, ‘Well, you’re going to have to forget all your friends, forget all the work you’ve done at this school, and start from scratch.’ ” TikToker @inzlay said in a video of herself tearfully bidding farewell to her 24,500 TikTok followers. She collected 300,000 likes. “It sounds dramatic to say I don’t know what I would be without TikTok, but I really don’t know who I would be without TikTok. It’s a big part of my growth over the last six years, and a lot of my growth. A big part of it comes from a lot of things I’ve learned from this app. I really hate saying goodbye.”
But in court, the justices upheld the argument that the government can eliminate new technologies and major means of expression if they are deemed a threat. Therefore, the legal argument stands and the ban is upheld.
