On Wednesday, March 13, the House decided to take official legal action in the banning of popular video app, TikTok. According to NBC News correspondent, Scott Wong, this seemingly fun and comical video service is a “national security threat.”
The vote was 352-65, with a singular member, Rep. Jasmine Crockett, D-Texas, voting present. The bill now heads to the Senate.
“Communist China is America’s largest geopolitical foe and is using technology to actively undermine America’s economy and security,” Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., said in a statement shortly after the vote, warning that TikTok could be used to access American data and spread “harmful” information.
Though this has been a particularly hot-button topic of late, it was, however, brought to attention first in 2020. This issue was first brought to attention under the term of former president Donald Trump under the pretense of information leakage. Despite this, according to journalist Cailey Gleeson, Trump now “condemns potential TikTok bans.”
These skepticisms of espionage however, are met by TikTok’s parent company Bytedance who has made a startling campaign in which they state that the banning of this device would “violate the First Amendment Rights of TikTok’s 170 million followers” as well as small businesses and other means that use it for outreach and promotion purposes solely.
According to NBC, small business owner Paul Tran and wife were brought to the stand in favor of TikTok usage, they left the hearing with a particularly gripping message for house members. “You will be destroying small businesses like us; this is our livelihood. We’ve created success…the American dream that we’ve created.”
But is this truly the American dream or perhaps more of an advantage for China resources?
China, according to Gennaro Cuofano, is making roughly 11 million in revenue from U.S TikTok users. Could there be more danger behind this money-gobbling entity?
As this issue progresses, President Joe Biden said he is prepared to sign off on this ban if it reaches his desk, even though as said by NBC, only last month Biden used TikTok in the advertisement of his 2024 presidential campaign proving its strong usage by plenty of Americans.
“My voice is on TikTok. My purpose is on TikTok. That’s it. We can’t let this happen,” is pleaded by JT Labourne, an American video creator against the ban.