The Biggest Problem with the TikTok Ban

On the 23rd of March 2023, Tick Tock CEO Show 2 testified before the U.S. Congress as the country intensifies its efforts to ban Tick Tock. Tick Tock has been the most downloaded app in the United States since 2021, with around 150 million American users. If this new law was passed, all of those people, including tens of millions who have built communities and livelihoods on the app, will no longer have access to it. In an instant, everything they've ever built on the app—gone.

I'll be the first to say that Tick Tock isn't the best app out there. We've made several videos about how dangerous it is, especially for young people. But the truth is that banning Tick Tock doesn't solve the problems we and many others have highlighted concerning the app. What's worse is that in an effort to ban just one app, U.S. Congress might be opening a can of worms, one with far more sinister consequences.

The case for banning Tick Tock is presented as a national security issue. Tick Tock captures tons of user data on Americans, but ByteDance, Tick Tock's parent company, is a Chinese company headquartered in Beijing. Like any other Chinese company, it is subject to national security law that requires it to hand over user data anytime the Chinese government requests it. Simply put, if the Chinese government wants your Tick Tock user data, they can collect it, and there's nothing Tick Tock or ByteDance can do about it. This includes data such as your email address, what websites you visit, and even your location within a small radius.

For most of us, this isn't too much of an issue. But the more popular Tick Tock gets, the more people—like politicians, journalists, and activists—are incentivized to use the platform to reach their audience. Those people are at risk of getting doxxed or, even worse, attacked.

Tick Tock CEO insists that the platform hasn't spied on Americans on behalf of the Chinese government, but that doesn't mean they won't in the future. In fact, for all we know, he might not have been telling the truth. It wouldn't be the first time a CEO has used slippery language to avoid admitting a hard truth. But would banning Tick Tock really prevent American user data from getting into the hands of the Chinese government? And why should we care anyway?

One of the biggest problems with Tick Tock is how easy it is to spend hours scrolling through silly videos instead of doing something productive. But with the sponsor of today's video, brilliant.org, it's now equally easy to spend your time on screen learning anything and everything STEM-related. Brilliant divides the lessons into manageable chunks that you can consume anywhere and at any time, even if you've just got 15 minutes to spare. Whether you're on your daily commute or you're waiting for a friend, you can easily open the app on your phone and do a quick lesson instead of spending that time scrolling through social media mindlessly.

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The truth is, Chinese intelligence has been engaging in significant acts of espionage for the last decade. Notably, they've stolen personal records from Anthem health insurance, the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, and...