Everyone has heard of TikTok, the popular app where creators share all kinds of videos, from cooking to dancing to memes to fashion. On March 13th the U.S. House of Representatives voted to approve a bill forcing ByteDance to either sell to a U.S. company or face the threat of being banned in the U.S. It still has to go through the Senate which will conduct its own hearings before voting on the bill. . If the bill does get passed it will then get sent to President Joe Biden who has previously said he would sign it.

Now if this app does get banned in the US it would put a lot of content creators’ jobs on the line. Content creators often use social media as their main and sometimes only income. TikTok plays a huge role in that line of work.

This shows how if the House of Representatives want something done they can get it done. This bill got passed quickly, while more important bills are stuck in limbo. We believe banning TikTok will affect a lot of Americans as it is one of the most used and viewed platforms. A lot of content creators rely on TikTok, including small business owners.

While politicians have said they fear Chinese influence over the platform, we have not heard a compelling reason why it’s so important to lose this popular social media platform, which Americans prefer to use to express themselves. Because there is no solid public evidence that there’s harm to our privacy and security, banning TikTok would not solve any problems. We believe that until there’s good public evidence that TikTok violates our security and privacy it should not be sold or banned.

Banning TikTok would silence businesses, influencers, and even politicians that use the app. According to USA Today, the American Civil Liberties Union and the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression both strongly oppose the TikTok ban. The Senior Policy Council at the ACLU argues that there have been no extreme dangers posed to national security, and closing the app would only violate the First Amendment.

One point politicians fail to see is that there has been no evidence that TikTok risked the privacy of its users, unlike other tech companies such as Facebook and Google. There has been no real evidence that TikTok poses a real threat to U.S. users’ data. TikTok has made efforts to put at ease U.S. officials by storing users’ data via Project Texas, a billion-dollar plan to separate U.S. data from the rest of the app. The project would have to implement transparency by transferring U.S. TikTok-user data to cloud storage in the United States and controlled by Oracle, a U.S. technology company. But unfortunately, it never went through.

However, the concern isn’t necessarily unwarranted due to concerns over the security of our nation’s people. This is due to TikTok being a Chinese-owned social media platform, which is required to follow China’s security laws. This can permit them to try to force their hand into giving user data to them, potentially leading to a security breach of America’s data and allowing them to weaponize or influence the U.S. public.

This bill wouldn’t just ban TikTok; it would ban any website, desktop application, mobile application, augmented or immersive technology in correlation to ByteDance Ltd., a Chinese internet technology company. This would allow the president to ban any foreign adversary related to ByteDance Ltd. if they see fit. This would be quite helpful, especially when it comes to defending the data and privacy of our citizens, and could potentially ensure more safety for U.S. users.

The U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill titled Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act. This bill also is very similar to the RESTRICT Act, which federal lawmakers unsuccessfully tried to use to ban TikTok last year. The RESTRICT Act gave power to the Secretary of Commerce to ban apps that were hosted by foreign adversaries.

Both Biden and former President Trump also have differing views on what to do with TikTok. For example, Trump changed his mind about banning the app, but after watching conspiracy theory films about how Meta/Facebook allegedly played a part in the 2020 election being stolen. He said he now believes that banning TikTok would now only benefit Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram. Trump has publicly said that he believes that Facebook is an enemy of the people.

Although there is warranted fear over China’s control over TikTok, and the possible risks that come with letting Americans use such an app, we don’t think there is enough evidence that proves TikTok provides a genuine threat to the American people’s safety or privacy.

Social media is a place where people can gather to discuss and exercise their First Amendment rights, make a living by creating content and selling merchandise, and overall have the chance to come closer with others through similar interests who live across the world.