The Impact of a National TikTok Ban on a Minnesota Superfood Hero, Amber Estenson, and William McCoy
It is very hard to pass a TikTok ban at this time, as candidates like Biden use the app to reach out to young voters, ahead of the US elections.
Two years ago, a Minnesota woman by the name of amber Estenson uploaded her quirky Minnesota “salad” recipe on Tiktok and went on to become a household name. The ingredients — Snickers bars, apples, Jell-O and Cool Whip — made her a viral sensation.
TikTokers use their platform to give back. William McCoy, who goes by Izzy White, is a former drug dealer and ex-felon from Baltimore. He said he uses his platform to help homeless people in his community.
Lawmakers from both parties have thrown their support behind a bill that would force TikTok’s China-based parent company, ByteDance, to divest the app within six months of the law’s enactment or face a nationwide ban.
TikTok is just one of many platforms that collect that kind of information. Many other platforms collect that information including American platforms, and it is then accessible to data brokers who sell it to foreign governments.
The Senate Select Committee on China (Senate) Appropriately Suggests That the Digital Content of Social Media Platforms are National Security Risks
The bill, which passed out of the House Energy and Commerce Committee last week with unanimous approval, appears to have the support it needs to pass the House.
Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-WI), who chairs the Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party and introduced the legislation, emphasized that the bill could not be used against American social media companies or individual social media users. He added that “it takes no position at all on the content of speech, only foreign adversary control.”
Gallagher says classified and unclassified national security assessments show that the app is a threat to user privacy, that it’s been used to target journalists and interfere in elections. Top officials from intelligence and national security agencies presented their analysis to all House members on Tuesday.
Some of the TikTok creators are upset with the bill. Charlotte Palermino, CEO and founder of the skin-care brand Dieux says that it’s not certain if the bill is going to actually protect Americans. “I find it to be very silly, but I think that it’s a nice encapsulation of American politics today, where we have people that do not understand technology trying to regulate it.”
“You had member offices being deluged with calls, you know, teenagers crying and one threatening suicide and one impersonating one of my colleague’s sons,” he said. That shows how the platform could be weaponized.
The president will have to address any future threats if foreign owned apps are deemed a national security risk. It also creates a system for users to download their own data and switch to an alternate platform.
Illinois Democrat, Raja Krishnamoorthi, is the ranking Democrat on the House Select committee on China and helped write the bill. He told NPR, “There’s no first amendment right to harm our national security and espionage is not one of them.”
The company stresses that it has invested its own money to set up a firewall in an effort dubbed “Project Texas” to address data privacy concerns and keep users’ data in the U.S.
Trump’s Facebook ban and the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act: A New Look at a Republican Presidential Candidate
Former President Donald Trump, the presumptive GOP presidential nominee, proposed a ban back in 2020 when he was in the White House. But he does not support the House bill.
He vowed to ban the social media app when he was president. In an interview with CNBC on Monday, Trump explained that he opposed a ban because he did not think users would stay on that platform if it were banned.
There’s a lot of good and bad with TikTok. But the thing I don’t like is that without TikTok, you can make Facebook bigger and I consider Facebook to be an enemy of the people along with a lot of the media,” he said.
President Joe Biden has already said he would sign the bill, the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act, if both chambers advance it.
The bill sailed through the House just about a week later, but it won’t be easy in the Senate.
To start, there’s no companion bill yet, so the legislation is barely at the start line in that chamber. Senate rules could make it difficult to get enough support to clear it even if one is introduced. Just one senator can put a hold on legislation to keep it from advancing quickly.
Sen. Paul said he could be willing to do that. He told The Washington Post prior to the House vote that he would block any bill he believed to violate the Constitution and said Congress shouldn’t “be trying to take away the First Amendment rights of [170] million Americans.”
Proposal for a Resolution to TikTok’s China–Teile Problem in the Senate: Timing the Senate RESTRICT Act
There’s room for doubts and money in a long legal process. Consider the splashy introduction of the RESTRICT Act — another attempt to ban TikTok — in the Senate last year just before TikTok CEO Shou Chew testified in the House. Despite early excitement about the measure, it slowly fell off the radar as opponents lodged their critiques. Ultimately, it failed to move through the chamber.
But Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) maintained his longtime support for taking action on TikTok’s China ties, saying on X after the House vote that “the Senate should take up this bill immediately.”
Senate Intelligence Committee chair and vice chair Mark Warner (D-VA) and Marco Rubio (R-FL) said in a joint statement that they were “encouraged by today’s strong bipartisan vote in the House of Representatives, and look forward to working together to get this bill passed through the Senate and signed into law.”
Warner is the leading sponsor of the RESTRICT Act, so it makes sense that he would support the House bill. Warner’s support for the new House legislation shows he’s willing to pursue other paths to deal with the threats he perceives from TikTok’s ownership.
The Big Tech privacy problem is different from the TikTok problem, writes Sen. Ed Markey in an X letter on Wednesday. US-owned companies are preying on children and teens for profit. We don’t need to ban TikTok to fix their invasive practices. Passing my COPPA 2.0 is the answer.”
Proponents of the RESTRICT Act, a Non-All-Out Ban on State-Dependent Freedom and Social Media Influence
Schumer has been non-committal about the path the bill will take. The Senate would review the legislation when it comes over from the House, said Schumer just after the House passed it.
Several supporters said that the bill was not an all out ban, but a way to make sure that TikTok doesn’t have ties to China.
But opponents of the bill on both sides of the aisle echoed each others’ concerns. The bill will come with unacceptable limits on free speech and expansion of governmental power as opponents fear it is an ineffectual solution to real national security concerns.
“It’s dangerous to give the president that kind of power, to give him the power to decide what Americans can see on their phones and on their computers,” said Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY).
Although Chew faced bipartisan grilling, some Democrats in particular expressed reservations about an all-out ban. And despite the early push from a group of powerful lawmakers, the RESTRICT Act ultimately fizzled out amid a strong lobbying campaign by TikTok and Republican concerns about granting too much executive branch power over the private sector.
Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene was concerned that the bill could be used to push for the sale of social media platforms, like X, which is owned by Musk.
Beijing’s influence operations are not limited to TikTok, noted Representative Kamlager-Dove. The Chinese influence operation that was on the Meta platforms had been removed. Smaller networks targeted users in India and Tibet.
The shuttering of TikTok Shop would have a negative short-term effect on Dieux according to Palermino. “Losing that would be challenging,” she says. She suspects a TikTok ban could affect other independent and up-and-coming brands within the United States in a huge way. “It will hurt their business.”