The TikTok Situation Is a Mess

If you like TikTok, you are not alone. There are a billion of you using the app right now, 170 million of which alone are Americans. Many of those millions are, of course, concerned and angry about the bill the House passed this week that could ban the app in the United States. While the bill’s fate in the Senate is uncertain, were it to pass, President Biden says he’ll sign. And unless parent company ByteDance manages to sell the app within six months of that signing, we’ll be saying goodbye to TikTok in the U.S.

I am sympathetic to anyone upset at the prospect of losing their favorite app. But we need to take a step back here: Whether it’s lawmakers cracking down on the app, or TikTok fighting for its life, the situation is getting out of control and weird. And whatever happens here, I’m not convinced it’s going to be good.

Congress is a bunch of out-of-touch hypocrites

Let’s not beat around the bush here: Congress is not handling this situation well at all.

Yes, lawmakers are concerned about the security implications of a massively popular app driven by a powerful algorithm that is controlled by a Chinese-based company. They’re worried about how the app is addicting to American children, and what influence it may have on them. But good lord: Can we act like adults here?

The first example that comes to mind is, of course, Sen. Tom Cotton. Even if you don’t know who Sen. Cotton is, you’ve seen his infamous questioning of TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew. Sen. Cotton was adamantly questioning Shou Zi Chew’s ties to China, drilling him about whether or not he was ever a member of the Chinese Communist Party—despite Chew’s repeated confirmation that he was, indeed, a citizen of Singapore, not China. Shou Zi Chew’s response, “Senator, I’m Singaporean. No,” is now a meme:

Last year’s Congressional grilling of Chew went about as well, too: Many lawmakers took the opportunity to spout their own beliefs about the app, rather than allow Chew to answer questions or provide context. As CNN highlights, when Chew asked if he could respond to a critical speech from Rep. Kat Cammack, the chair of the committee said, “No. We’re going to move on.”

It really doesn’t help that Congress is so focused on TikTok, when so many of the big names in tech have very similar privacy policies. We don’t have something like Europe’s GDPR here, and while we passively benefit from some of those protections, the lack of true American laws in this field means that U.S. tech companies scrape and abuse our data, too. It’s no secret, either: We all know these companies gather as much of our data as possible and track our habits. We just know our lawmakers have no interest in regulating this activity, and that it’s on us to configure every privacy setting we’re given, or download specific privacy-focused apps. When it’s Meta or Google, it’s fine. When it’s an app like TikTok, it must be stopped at all costs.

It’s these types of theatrics and contradictions that have totally undermined Congress’s arguments here in the eyes of so many TikTok users. People see the xenophobia and the hypocrisy: They’re not going to take Sen. Cotton’s concerns seriously when he stupidly accuses their favorite app’s CEO of being a citizen of another country, all the while turning a blind eye to every American-based company that wants their data.

TikTok isn’t innocent either

Look, Congress is messing this up bad. But that doesn’t mean TikTok is on the winning side here, either. Unfortunately, Congress has some points here when it comes to the app’s security concerns. Yes, American companies do it, too: But TikTok isn’t owned by an American company. ByteDance has to answer to the Chinese government, and there are laws in China that require companies like ByteDance to hand over user data, including the data from American users. I don’t blame the American government not wanting their citizen’s data siphoned off to any foreign government.

While many of the privacy and security concerns are hypothetical, not all of them are. In 2022, ByteDance employees obtained the IP addresses of American journalists from their TikTok accounts in an effort to root out someone leaking company secrets. Last year, TikTok confirmed some U.S. user data is stored in China, despite the company’s previous assurances that wasn’t the case.

And then there’s that famous algorithm. What makes TikTok so fun and addicting is that the algorithm is very good at showing you content it thinks you will want to see. That’s all fine and well when you’re interested in comedy, cooking, and even different points of view. But it’s not unreasonable for lawmakers to be concerned that an app with a massive American user base and an extremely persuasive algorithm operated by a company based in a geopolitical rival’s nation could potentially have some compromising sway over the content those users see.

Users critical of lawmakers see these TikTok concerns as more about the U.S. government’s lack of control over the information TikTok offers than issues about manipulation, and in some respects, they might be right. But to assert that TikTok and its parent company are a neutral party only interested in delivering raw, impartial truths, is absurd. TikTok and ByteDance are not the free press: They’re businesses, and just like other businesses, they have a key interest in both your data and keeping you in the app for as long as possible. And while there’s no evidence that the Chinese government has pushed TikTok to promote certain content to American users, I can appreciate the concern here.

TikTok is already using its sway to influence its users. Yesterday, the company posted a video of Chew, CEO of TikTok, using TikTok to advocate for TikTok. I get it: The company does not want this bill to pass. But the app is advertising its plight to users, on the app, asking them to flood Congress with phone calls voicing their disapproval. I can imagine a concerned member of Congress, debating whether to pass this bill, reading through the comments on this video with dread. TikTok clearly has a huge influence over a massive portion of the country, and the company isn’t doing much to actually assure lawmakers that situation isn’t something to worry about.

It’s the users who are really going through it right now

Congress and TikTok both have their points and their massive missteps, but at the end of the day, it’s the users that are really caught in the crossfire here—and it sucks. Not only do so many of those millions enjoy using the app for mindless fun, so many rely on the app for their livelihoods. There are an estimated seven million small businesses that use TikTok, and while there are plenty of other social media apps out there to build an audience on, banning the app would undoubtedly have a negative impact on all who currently rely on it.

If I could wave a wand and force Congress to pass actual privacy laws that protect all Americans—so that whether you were TikTok or Facebook, you needed to play by the same rules—I would. It’s what we desperately need, not one-off legislation targeting a singular app. TikTok has a lot of problems. The U.S. government has a lot of problems. This whole situation is a mess, and I’m struggling to see a good outcome from any of it.