The U.S. Appeals Court has spoken. It won’t overturn the law requiring TikTok’s parent company to divest ownership. No surprises there. Meanwhile, no one with a heart or a brain is looking forward to the potential financial fallout as the creator economy, largely empowered by TikTok, takes a hit. Gig workers, side hustlers, and small business owners will now scramble to salvage their income on other platforms. Sadly, unless 47 or the Supremes swoop in for a plot twist, this is going to sting.
As for TikTok, it’s more than just a social media platform. It’s a real community, or should I say, a unifying force for niche communities like #MomTok, #CleanTok, #Trekkie, #Indigenous and, dare I say it, #Over60. TikTok has also been the unsung hero for night owls like me, an insomnia hotline that keeps creativity and connection alive at 3 a.m.
Watching favorite creators now drop their “find me elsewhere” handles feels like déjà vu. It’s Twitter’s migration chaos all over again, but with more dances and far fewer cryptic memes. That’s because, somehow, TikTok is now the convenient scapegoat du jour for all our digital woes. Pardon my skepticism, but this feels more like political theater than genuine concern for national security.
Where’s the Evidence?
The accusations against TikTok are dramatic: claims that the Chinese government could leverage the app to spy on millions of Americans or subtly influence our thinking. But here’s the thing: banning TikTok is essentially a preemptive strike. Has anybody provided concrete proof that the spying by China has actually happened through the app?
I can’t help but think too many members of Congress are fans of the movie Minority Report (2002), where people are convicted of crimes they might commit in the future. Sure, anything is possible, but so is finding a unicorn in my backyard. Until real evidence materializes, it’s hard to see this ban as anything more than speculative fear-mongering. Pretty much, politics as usual.
Privacy: The Real (and Ignored) Problem
Even if TikTok were guilty of everything it’s accused of, would it really be doing anything that Facebook, Google, or countless other platforms haven’t already done? These companies have made billions exploiting our data, whether by targeting us with ads or amplifying disinformation that undermines democracy.
Meanwhile, industry revels in this lack of privacy—after all, how else would big business magically know to serve us an ad the moment we think about buying something? Congress isn’t just looking the other way; it’s complicit. It’s like locking up a petty shoplifter while ignoring the embezzler robbing the entire vault. No, wait. It’s really like bellyaching that Biden pardoned his son while ignoring the dubiously-crafted pardons, and abuse thereof, that dominated Trump’s first term. But that’s a tale for another time.
Political Posturing 101
Let’s not pretend the TikTok ban is all about protecting the American people. TikTok’s popularity with younger, more progressive voters makes it a convenient target for old farts (aka lawmakers) who’d rather sidestep deeper issues. It’s much easier to point fingers at a foreign-owned app than to admit the United States has done a crappy job of protecting digital privacy across the board. And the irony? Many of the same voices decrying TikTok’s potential for disinformation are perfectly fine using domestic platforms that have been weaponized to spread lies and chaos.
Even more hypocritical is the fact that political campaigns themselves are among the biggest abusers of personal data. Through vast databases, they compile detailed voter profiles, leveraging information as specific as what car you drive to tailor their messaging. Data brokers aggregate public records, consumer behavior, and online activity, selling these profiles to campaigns that use them to micro-target voters. Politicians talk a good game about privacy, but let’s face it: they aren’t going to do anything meaningful. The lack of privacy is a feature, not a bug, in their system of influence.
What’s Really at Stake
By targeting TikTok without addressing the larger privacy crisis, Congress risks undermining trust in its motives. Oh, wait. That ship has sailed. Look, it’s hard to take claims of concern seriously when domestic platforms continue to operate with impunity.
But hey, if all that warm-and-fuzzy faith in government doesn’t do it for you and you’d rather let dollar signs steer your moral compass, consider this: TikTok claims small businesses (aka collateral damage) could bleed over $1 billion in revenue and creators could kiss nearly $300 million goodbye…in just one month. If TikTok gets the boot, women—who make up 84% of influencers, according to a 2024 report by Influencer Marketing Hub—will bear the brunt of the fallout. But hey, nothing like a good ol’ ban to keep women out of the work force, right? I’m sure some folks are just thrilled at the prospect.
The platform’s future—and the economic ripple effects—are at stake, making it more important than ever to get the facts straight. If we’re going to disrupt lives and livelihoods, shouldn’t we demand real evidence first?
A Better Path Forward
Here’s a radical idea: instead of selectively targeting TikTok, let’s hold all platforms accountable for protecting user data and combating disinformation. Create universal standards, demand transparency, and enforce meaningful penalties for violations. I mean, it seems like something’s been done at the federal level, but not really. I kinda recall mentions of these issues in years past, but the shiniest red herring always manages to draw our attention away, again and again.
At least some states are taking privacy protection into their own hands, as disconnected and loophole-ridden those siloed efforts seem to be. Oh, and didn’t I just read that Zuckerberg had dinner with Trump just recently at Mar-a-Lago? I wonder if the question of privacy came up during dessert. Nah!
Bottom Line: while there may be legitimate concerns about data access and potential misuse, definitive public evidence of the Chinese government exploiting TikTok for espionage against Americans has not been found.
Look, it’s time to stop playing politics with privacy and start addressing the real systemic issues that affect every corner of the digital world. Until then, the outrage over TikTok feels less like a principled stand and more like a convenient distraction. And frankly, I’m tired of the theatrics. Wake me up when Congress decides to take digital privacy seriously…or at least when someone finds that unicorn in my backyard.
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I vaguely remember Dick Cheney talking about using nuclear weapons in Iran.
Google it.
Misplaced comment.
USA has the worst track record on protecting citizens’ digital privacy and preventing mis/disinformation in the western world. There is one overriding reason for this: digital platforms think they are more profitable by being able to abuse our privacy and allow the informational equivalent of sewage to flow into our devices. That’s essentially why Silicon Valley tycoons decided to back Trump; he promised to maintain the untenable status quo. I don’t expect we will make any progress in legal regulation of digital platforms in the next few years. Perhaps the best one can do for now is to choose platforms who are willing to respect your privacy as a matter of corporate policy. Good luck with that!
There are no platforms that respect digital privacy.
Anyone who claims to will eventually need money and sell your data, or be bought out by some company that will sell your data.
Look at what’s happening with 23andMe. People’s DNA, their most intimate data, is going to be sold.
If they respected our privacy they wouldn’t data mine us at all.
I work in tech and if people knew 1% of what we’re up to they’d be in the streets of Silicon Valley with pitchforks and torches.
Except that we’d know you were coming and offer you three months of some crap for free or send you an alert on your phone about something that is in no way important enough to warrant your immediate attention, to distract you, and then go right back to picking your pocket.
Silicon Valley hasn’t invented anything new in decades. Uber is a taxi service, PayPal is a bank, DoorDash is just a delivery service.
Quelle futuristic!
They’re just middle men who insert themselves into every corner of our lives and then sell everything they learn about us to data aggregators, who sell our info to political campaigns, governments, companies that want to know how much they can get away with, and conmen.
For the frog in the pot analogy, we’re way past the slow boil phase, we were plated next to the lemon risotto and roasted asparagus, eaten, and the plate scraped and in the dishwasher.
I was once in a meeting where an exec said, out loud, that our Visa pre-paid card, branded with the company, was a way to “rape poor people”.
In another, I sat next to a billionaire who made jokes about a company we were buying and how he was going to fire 200 people.
Hahahahahaha!
I understand people have made communities on social media and that a lot of people earn their living there, but these sites are not the good guys and they are not your friends.
Those communities are how they get you.
PS – Don’t sneeze around your Amazon Echo, your health insurance company will know and raise your rates.
And, McDonald’s, as a matter of fact I will not be ordering on the app today. F’ off clown.
They dont even try to hide rank hypocrisy anymore. Right, John K.?