TikTok Voices Concerns Over Free Speech Following New Bill

TikTok expresses the ongoing tension between technology companies and government regulations. (Source Image: Dan Kitwood/Getty Images)

Phetolo Sematha

(The Post News) – TikTok has expressed worries about digital security and foreign influence. The U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill that may have a big impact on TikTok’s future in the United States. The bill requires TikTok’s Chinese parent company, ByteDance, to sell the app within a year, or else it will be banned from U.S. app stores.

This new legislation is the second significant effort made by U.S. lawmakers to address concerns regarding the Chinese government’s potential access to the data of more than 170 million American TikTok users. TikTok is widely recognised for its short videos and has become an essential part of the digital landscape, with millions of users worldwide, especially among younger people.

The bill easily passed the House with a vote of 360-58 and is now ready for a Senate decision. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer mentioned that talks are ongoing to plan the next vote, which could occur as soon as next Tuesday and will be connected to a foreign aid package. President Joe Biden has shown his approval of the bill, but he wants it to receive approval from Congress before fully endorsing it.

The platform’s spokesperson expressed their dissatisfaction, saying that “the procedure was secretive and the legislation was rushed with a clear intention: it aims to impose a ban”. This bill seeks to govern the activities of social media platforms linked to foreign governments, and it has sparked a passionate discussion regarding the delicate balance between national security and freedom of expression.

TikTok recently urged its users to express their disapproval of the proposed legislation to their elected officials. However, according to Clayton Allen, the director of Eurasia Group, this move seems to have been ignored by the lawmakers in Washington, D.C. TikTok had sent alerts to some of its users last week, asking them to engage with their representatives and warning them that the proposed legislation could potentially deprive them of their constitutional right to use TikTok.

Many US lawmakers from both the Republican and Democratic parties, as well as the Biden administration, have raised national security concerns about TikTok. They argue that China could compel the company to share the data of its 170 million US users. However, TikTok insists it has never shared US data and never would.

Senator Mark Warner, chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, expressed his apprehensions on Sunday 21 April. Senator Warner highlighted the potential misuse of TikTok as a propaganda tool by foreign entities, specifically the Chinese government. “Many young people use TikTok to get news, and 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’ data, is a national security risk,” said Warner in an interview with CBS News.

Some progressive Democrats have expressed concerns about free speech regarding the ban on TikTok. They suggest focusing on stricter data privacy regulations instead. Democratic U.S. Representative Ro Khanna stated on Sunday that he believes a TikTok ban might not withstand legal challenges in courts, referring to the protection of free speech under the U.S. Constitution. In an interview with ABC News, he said, “I don’t think it will pass the test of the First Amendment.”

While the debate continues, the concerns raised by TikTok highlight the ongoing tension between technology companies, government regulations, and the fundamental right to free speech.