As has been much discussed this week, the House Energy & Commerce Committee voted unanimously to pass a bill sponsored by Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-Wisc.) titled the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act. According to the Washington Examiner, “the bill would make it unlawful for app stores to host social media applications owned by companies connected to ‘foreign adversaries,’ such as China, Russia, or Iran, specifically focusing on TikTok and its parent company ByteDance.” Reports indicate that the full House may consider the legislation in the next few weeks.
This is not a good bill and we should stop acting as if it is. It inhibits the First Amendment rights of Americans who use the app and it would be a total gift for Facebook and their competing short video service, Reels. Former President Donald J. Trump correctly argued on his Truth Social that “If you get rid of TikTok, Facebook and Zuckerschmuck will double their business. I don’t want Facebook, who cheated in the last Election, doing better. They are a true Enemy of the People!”
I am by no means a Trump sycophant, but he nailed that one.
I don’t like TikTok — I think it’s stupid — but I hate Facebook. I think the latter is sucking the soul of our families and our nation and I believe that Mark Zuckerburg is actually evil. More power for Mark? No, thank you.
I am not at all comfortable with all the data social media services collect and sell off to the highest bidder. Some are ok surrendering their data because they don’t have to suffer through too many ads, it’s free, there are puppies or what have you. This is up to them. It is no secret to anyone that you surrender a lot of information to play the social media game. Washington politicians — most of whom use these services voraciously (via staff in most cases) shouldn’t be playing referee in cases like this.
It’s also just plain bad politics to shut off an app that 170 million Americans use for business, pleasure, and politics. “CCP data mining!” they shout. I am certainly no fan of the CCP and I wouldn’t put anything past them, but where exactly is the proof that brief video clips of 13-year-olds dancing or people sharing recipes are worth anything? Did I miss something beyond theories? And if China were somehow tampering with TikTok data, shouldn’t we toss our smartphones? Because if they are screwing around with TikTok certainly our iPhones are compromised, no?
And as for Fecesbook (oops! Typo!) — the true, demonstrable evil. Mark Zuckerberg is positively salivating over a TikTok ban. He’s apparently behind a lot of it. The Washington Post reported on March 30, 2022, “Facebook parent company Meta is paying one of the biggest Republican consulting firms in the country to orchestrate a nationwide campaign seeking to turn the public against TikTok.”
The Post pointed at a public relations campaign that they characterized as “bare-knuckle tactics, long commonplace in the world of politics” that “have become increasingly noticeable within a tech industry where companies vie for cultural relevance and come at a time when Facebook is under pressure to win back young users.” The motivation for the strong push against TikTok seems to be less centered on imagined national security grounds and more on the greed of a petulant billionaire.
I understand the game in Washington where one company uses an argument to hammer a competitor to leverage the power of government for competitive advantage. I’ve played that game in my real life, so I know it well. It’s a sad Swamp fact. The difference between me and fear-mongering politicians is that I trust the American people.
They are smart enough to know a hoax when they see one and again, I think most understand that using these services, while free, there is a tradeoff in terms of their information. Some, like me, dumped Facebook early, and as I said I’ve never been on TikTok. But I don’t judge my friends who are obsessed to differing degrees with both. It’s simply their choice, not Congressman Gallagher’s.