This stance probably won't sit well with some of my readers, but after looking into TikTok more, I've learned more about the platform and how it's hardly something that worries me, at least compared to some of the other platforms here in America.
What I can tell you is that the vaunted TikTok ban that speed-ran its way through Congress is dangerous. As Kentucky Rep. Thomas Massie and Rand Paul both pointed out, this bill is a poison pill meant to give the Executive Branch censorship powers over the internet.
(READ: Thomas Massie Sounds the Alarm About the Democrat's Trojan Horse Inside the TikTok Ban)
They managed to push this through with support from both sides of the aisle and many voters under the guise of protecting us from China. TikTok is owned by ByteDance which is, after all, connected to the Chinese Communist Party. The idea is that as millions of Americans use TikTok, their information is being funneled directly to the CCP.
However, while that's a possibility, it's not necessarily true. There's still no evidence that ByteDance has ever given the CCP any information, and that continues partly thanks to TikTok's $1.5 billion "Project Texas," a firewall for U.S. data overseen by Oracle, a Texas-based company.
That's not to say anyone should rest easy. Constant monitoring is always necessary, but we can at least know that ByteDance isn't handing over our info for the moment. In fact, as Paul Matzko of the Cato Institute writes, the speed at which Congress wants to come down on TikTok is odd considering that the data that's supposedly vulnerable could be obtained for far cheaper.
Given the immense potential consequences, one would think that the bill’s authors would have proffered some hard evidence of Chinese government surveillance using American TikTok data. They have not. There are allegations that the Chinese authorities could force ByteDance to force Singapore‐based TikTok to force its US team in Los Angeles to share user data under the terms of a 2017 Chinese national security law.
In fact, I don’t doubt that they could, assuming of course that they would be willing to risk exposure and the implosion of a $200 billion company just to gain information they could otherwise buy from data brokers for pennies. But maybe Chinese bureaucrats are as fond of making silly, unforced errors as their American counterparts are.
But if I'm being honest, I'm less worried about China and more worried about American entities that would benefit from TikTok's sudden disappearance.
The truth is that both the government and big tech would love for TikTok to disappear. TikTok is eating their lunch when it comes to nearly every aspect of its platform, and getting rid of the competition through congressional interference would make big tech's day.
As Donald Trump recently pointed out, TikTok isn't the main enemy at the end of the day, American companies like Meta are. They happily censor anyone they or the Democrat Party deem dangerous, and TikTok is itself something of a loose end for the left.
As my colleague Neil McCabe wrote, the TikTok ban would actually help platforms like Meta:
It is not a stretch to say that TikTok is the Facebook killer. Just when Facebook is struggling to compete and rejigger its pre-TikTok business model, it would be absurd for conservatives to step up and take down the enemy Facebook cannot beat on its own.
That's not to say that America shouldn't do what it can to decrease the CCP's influence on ByteDance. Divesting from the CCP is easier said than done and the company will need a soft place to land should that happen. Luckily, there are players in the U.S. willing to take ByteDance under its wing and partner with them.
This includes Rumble, whose CEO Chris Pavlovski made an offer to ByteDance to be a "Cloud Technology Partner." Pavlovski mentioned in his letter to ByteDance that he's working with other "parties" to help acquire and operate TikTok within America.
With TikTok being as powerful as it is, a sudden shift to being a free speech platform outside the control of major tech companies like Microsoft or the influence of the Democrat Party wouldn't just create an amazingly popular platform but would also have a massive cultural impact that would be devastating to the left.
Not that TikTok isn't something of a problem to the left already. While the platform is popular for being the place where Libs of TikTok gets its content, it's also home to a myriad of conservative voices, some of whom have become incredibly influential. Christians also find a healthy home on TikTok and you'll find some of the most well-spoken and educated apologists discussing Christianity in a very easy-to-understand way while being incredibly accurate.
Moreover, I can tell you this with certainty. I have accounts on YouTube, X, Instagram, and TikTok. All of these are players in the quick content game and of all of them, TikTok treats me with the most respect. I've only ever had one video rejected and that was for a language reason. TikTok doesn't shadow-ban me for my conservative opinion like other platforms do, and its algorithm sees to it that my video gets out to the most eyes possible.
It's an experience that has really highlighted just how far America has fallen behind due to a mixture of greed and obedience to overbearing political nonsense.
(READ: TikTok Exposed Inconvenient Facts About America and I Don't Mean Our Data)
Is TikTok's connections to the CCP a potential problem? Absolutely.
But I consider that far less of a threat than our own government and big tech companies are, and their willingness to take wide sweeping action against TikTok isn't for our "safety" as they would like to make us believe.
Here's the bottom line.
Here in America, we should be free to choose to use whatever platform we want and accept the dangers that may or may not come with it. In my opinion, it's not up to the government to decide what I can and can't do when it comes to my internet browsing.
I know for a fact that if they can get their foot in the door by banning TikTok, it won't stop there. This legislation that already gives the power of banning websites to the President will be abused.
Besides, if the Democrats are so worried about TikTok being a Chinese spy...then why is our President's staff using it? That sounds like a lot of "freedom for me but not for thee" nonsense.
I don't expect everyone to agree with this take, but from where I'm sitting, TikTok isn't at the top of my list of worries. My own government and the censorship-loving leftists in Silicon Valley are. If they all have a problem with TikTok, I know it's not because they're concerned for me.
I'm not willing to give up my liberty for safety.
