Lourdes Vega
February 28, 2025
An infringement of any freedom will cause chaos. The nationwide ban on TikTok has been a controversy that includes concerns over data sharing between China and the United States, but also the lives of the American people themselves. Ever since the transition from Vine to TikTok in 2016, the ByteDance company, both in the past and during current times, has not failed the users in satisfying their need for entertainment and their ability to express themselves in countless ways. The country’s citizens have grown too dependent on TikTok for a replacement to be easily found; even corporations and large to small businesses rely on the app for exposure and marketing. A better, more efficient solution is strict regulations rather than a ban. This would at least bring the debacle to a compromise for data privacy concerns with foreign powers while advocating for freedom of speech. The Time article “The Grim Reality of Banning TikTok” brings up an excellent point: “TikTok stands accused of being a conduit for the Chinese Communist Party, guzzling up sensitive user data and sending it to China. There’s not much evidence to suggest that’s true, except that their parent company ByteDance is a Chinese company, and China’s government has its so-called private sector in a chokehold.” and “The reality is that if Congress wanted to solve our data privacy problems, they would solve our data privacy problems. But instead, they want to ban TikTok, so they’ve found a way to try and do so.” To put this into perspective, the very fuel that drove the ban has become an unreliable point to be reasoned with. It is simply an assumption that unfortunately, took place with no proper investigation and background checks to back up the accusations, no conversations with the other country in question. Regulations should be updated, and the benefit of the doubt should be given when it comes to affecting a large number of people. There should be an attempt to save what makes up millions of American lives rather than simply putting the ban as a band-aid to the underlying privacy concerns.
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