(Image via nytimes.com)
Staff Writer: Connor Sullivan
Email: csullivan14@umassd.edu
President Biden signed a new bill into law on Wednesday, April 24th, that could lead to the banning of TikTok.
The new law, the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act (PAFACA), will require the app’s Chinese parent company ByteDance to sell the platform within 180 days if the service is to continue operating in the United States.
While the law specifically targets ByteDance, it also extends this requirement to any company “that is determined by the President to present a significant threat to the national security of the United States.”
ByteDance has promised to challenge the law in court, arguing that banning the app would violate its users’ First Amendment right to free speech and expression.
“Rest assured, we aren’t going anywhere,” said TikTok CEO Shou Chew, in a video posted to the platform, “We are confident, and we will keep fighting for your rights in the courts.”
Since its limited launch in 2016, TikTok has become one of the most dominant social media platforms in the world, with over 170 million users in the US alone. Many politicians argue its reach represents a national security risk, as it gives a corporation with close ties to a rival nation direct access to what most Americans are seeing and sharing.
“Rivers of data are being collected and shared in ways that are not well aligned with American security interests,” said Delaware Senator Chris Coons.
“The idea that we would give the Communist Party this much of a propaganda tool, as well as the ability to scrape 170 million Americans’ personal data, it is a national security risk,” said Virginia Senator Mark Warner.
Calls to ban TikTok picked up steam in 2020 under President Trump, who made several statements claiming the app posed a risk to both the government and its citizens. Most notably, he issued an executive order to ban the platform on August 6th, 2020, which was rescinded by Biden in June 2021 before it took effect.
Several other countries have banned or restricted the use of TikTok. Canada began forbidding the use of the app on government-issued phones in February 2023. India instituted a nationwide ban in June 2020. In both cases, there were similar concerns that the app posed a risk to national security.
Along with ByteDance, many others oppose the banning, arguing that it violates the First Amendment rights of citizens who use the app to express their views.
The ACLU put out a press release in March stating that the law “would violate the First Amendment rights of hundreds of millions of Americans who use the app to communicate and express themselves daily.”
On similar ground, U.S. District Judge Donald Molloy blocked a law in Montana that attempted to ban Tiktok claiming that it “oversteps state power” and “likely violates the First Amendment.”
Additionally, some argue that there has been no hard evidence that China is using the app to spy on Americans, with security experts claiming these concerns are mostly hypothetical.
Some also criticize that no action is being proposed on domestic social media apps that harvest user data. Cybersecurity firm Malwarebytes notes that TikTok’s means of data tracking are also used on a much wider scale by companies like Google and Meta, which own Facebook and Instagram.
The New Bedford Light interviewed several UMass Dartmouth students about their use of the app and their thoughts on its potential banning. Most were skeptical that the app poses enough of a threat to warrant a ban.
“I don’t view it as a thing that should get banned but I think that there are bigger worries to be focused on,” said Animation & Game Arts major Alexandros Stathatos.
“One thing I feel like is a lot of apps track our data. So TikTok may be one of them but if we open that door to question TikTok, I feel like we need to question a lot of other apps,” said communications major Arnold Moore.