TikTok ban: Protecting our children, but at the cost of freedom of speech?

The United States has given TikTok an ultimatum: either sell the app’s operations in the country to a government-approved American owner within 9-12 months, or face a ban.

These are the conditions set in a bill that US President Joe Biden signed and that has passed in front of the US Senate and House of Representatives this week, a piece of legislation aiming to curb what is perceived as the app's Chinese influence.

US officials have long insisted the Chinese government may be able to view the personal information of TikTok users — but that claim was purely speculative. Until now.

But is banning the app the way to go?

Digital rights groups are already debating this decision, and questioning what this will mean for free speech and net neutrality. TikTok itself has previously cited the First Amendment, which could point to a long and drawn-out legal battle.

What could the ramifications be on thousands of content creators and businesses that rely on TikTok for their livelihoods?

Let’s investigate…

What is the US worried about?

This is primarily a debate around control. TikTok’s Chinese roots and its potential ability to influence the US population have often been the biggest points of contention for the US. After all, It has become a leading source of information in the country, with about one-third of Americans under 30 regularly getting their news from it.

To simplify this detailed CNN report, TikTok is owned by ByteDance, and as a China-based company, it is subject to several Chinese national intelligence, data security, and cybersecurity laws.

This means that when it really comes down to the wire, the Chinese government could possibly put pressure on ByteDance, and by extension TikTok, to share user data and access its assets.

FBI Director Christopher Wray told House Intelligence Committee members in March that the Chinese government could compromise Americans' devices through the software.

It is mainly for this reason that the US has often been so cautious about the app, and why it’s now calling for the company’s operations to fall under American ownership.

China blocks many American companies from operating within its digital borders—companies like Google and Meta, for example. That’s because China runs its own walled-off internet network.

The question has been raised multiple times in the past: “Shouldn’t the US be doing the same?”

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TikTok’s many bouts with national governments

TikTok is no stranger to governmental scrutiny. If this were a boxing match, would Biden’s ban be the knockout punch in the final round?

Last year, TikTok’s CEO Shou Zi Chew was grilled in a congressional hearing for 5 hours about several issues. In 2020, TikTok was the target of the Trump administration for similar reasons.

Just two months ago, Chew testified before the US Senate Judiciary Committee alongside other Big Tech executives, after being accused by lawmakers and parents for not doing enough to enforce child safety on their platforms, failing to combat dangers such as sexual exploitation and bullying.

In rebuttal, Chew noted that TikTok’s community guidelines strictly prohibit anything that puts “teenagers at risk of exploitation or other harm – and we vigorously enforce them.”

But that doesn’t seem to be enough for legislators, who not only see the app as a threat to children but also to all Americans.

It's not the first time TikTok's done the legal tango

India banned the app in 2020, as part of a larger crackdown on hundreds of Chinese apps. This cost ByteDance one of its biggest markets.

Britain and its Parliament, Australia, Canada, France, the executive arm of the European Union, and New Zealand’s Parliament have all banned the app from official devices. Since 2023, the White House and more than 30 US states have mandated that TikTok be banned on government-issued devices.

In 2023, the state of Montana tried to ban the app within its jurisdiction but was denied by a judge who said that a ban of TikTok most likely violated the First Amendment and a clause that gives Congress the power to regulate commerce with foreign nations.

Freedom of speech

Those opposing the US Senate’s recent mandate question the true intention behind a potential banning, or the selling, of TikTok.

“While fashioned as a forced divestiture on national security grounds, let’s be real: This is a ban. The intent has always been to ban TikTok, to punish it and its users without solving any of the underlying data privacy issues lawmakers claim to care about,” Scott Nover wrote for Time.

Many experts have pointed out that if the ban were to go through, the US would be eliminating a platform where over 170 million Americans share their views and receive information.

While US kids are dancing, Chinese kids are learning

Another hotly debated argument on national television has been whether TikTok is harmful to children.

There’s no denying that TikTok is one of the largest forces shaping our children’s identities today: 22% of TikTok’s users are aged between 13-17, and spend 75 minutes on the app daily.

“Social problems based in personal values and ethics impacted by social media use have… been found. However, data is limited, causation has yet to be clearly established, personal factors impacting positive and negative outcomes are unclear, and long-term impact has yet to be fully studied given that social media use and related research is relatively new,” said Jaclyn Halpern, PsyD, from Washington Behavioral Medicine Associates, in a conversation with Psychiatric Times.

Other findings are more critical.

In a 2022 report by the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH), researchers set up TikTok accounts posing as 13-year-old users interested in content about body image and mental health. They found that within 2.6 minutes, TikTok recommended suicide content. Within 8 minutes, TikTok served content related to eating disorders. Every 39 seconds, TikTok recommended videos about body image and mental health to teens.

Interestingly, TikTok does not exist in China. Instead, ByteDance offers a different version of the app exclusively to the Chinese market, Douyin, which offers features and content that are very different than what you’d find on TikTok...

While Western teens are twerking and recording lip-sync videos, and ingesting short videos that seem to be giving us the attention spans of fish, teens using Douyin are served up value-driven, scientific, and educational material.

TikTok's got 9-12 months to make moves or face some serious "unfollows"

TikTok is not only home to over 170 million active US users—it’s also home to seven million US-based businesses, with nearly 40 percent of US small and medium businesses (SMBs) saying that the app is critical to their businesses' existence, a recent report revealed. That’s not to mention the thousands of content creators on the app too, many of whom rely on it for their livelihood. It contributes $24 billion in GDP, provides more than 224,000 American jobs. TikTok brings us together, helps us stay informed of what's happening 'on the ground' around the world, and provides opportunities for self-expression.

The legislation gives TikTok's China-based parent company nine to 12 months to sell or be banned in the U.S. ... after the 2024 election.

But TikTok plans on fighting back.

"Nine months is a rather quick timeframe for this size of a transaction - it's something that is likely to have further regulatory scrutiny even without the requirements in this proposal," Jennifer Huddleston from the Cato Institute, told the BBC.

What we can be certain of is that an outright ban without first addressing the actual present problems could be a rash misstep. As with all issues, there is no black-or-white answer. And of course, any legislative action that should be taken ought to be backed by extensive research and study, not anti-Chinese sentiment and phobia.

But with rivers of data being collected and apparently shared in ways that are not well-aligned with American security interests, one has to wonder what the future holds.

Perhaps, rather than worrying about the Chinese government's ability to influence "a lot of young people" who use TikTok, we should focus on the children themselves; help them find balance in today's digital world, and prepare them for a world of online dangers and manipulation. Because, if they aren't on TikTok, I bet you in Bitcoin they'll be on another app.

Let's discuss:

Could the US turn back on its decision to ban or force the sale of TikTok? After all, it’s seeing some strong opposition from people such as ex-President Donald Trump, who’s changed his tune on the app since his term.

Will China intervene in this decision? What about digital rights groups?

Is this whole legislation a breach of the First Amendment?

And, ultimately, will any of these decisions actually benefit children and teenagers?