On Wednesday’s episode of “The ReidOut,” Joy Reid invited Democratic Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi of Illinois to discuss his support for banning the social media platform TikTok.
Here on the ReidOut Blog, I’ve written extensively on social media manipulation — and the fact that all social media platforms permit it at some level. That’s why I’ve been irritated by what appears to be a Sinophobic fascination with thwarting TikTok’s U.S. influence. It’s also why I was grateful that Krishnamoorthi came on the show to discuss a policy position that’s been publicly denounced (rightly, I believe) by members of his own party.
I must say, however, that some of his responses left me with more questions than answers. Here are a few of points lawmakers must answer if they want Americans to widely support their TikTok bans.
How would a sale of TikTok resolve concerns about data privacy?
In testimony before the House last week, TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew said that ownership of a particular social media platform — or, more specifically, moving ownership of TikTok to the United States — doesn’t solve problems around data privacy. And he’s absolutely right.
TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew to U.S. lawmakers: ‘I don’t think ownership is the issue here. With a lot of respect, American social companies don’t have a good track record with data privacy and user security. I mean, look at Facebook and Cambridge Analytica — just one example.’ pic.twitter.com/if54mmaNv5
— NowThis Impact (@nowthisimpact) March 23, 2023
Note: He specifically referenced the Cambridge Analytica scandal, in which pro-Donald Trump operatives secretly got their hands on data harvested from 50 million Facebook profiles. A Russian troll army similarly exploited Facebook’s data and algorithms to spam American voters in an attempt to undermine democracy during the 2016 election, as spelled out in a bipartisan Senate report. Facebook, of course, is an American company.
And in the absence of broader social media regulations, there’s virtually nothing stopping U.S. social media companies from funneling Americans’ data to foreign entities, whether openly or inconspicuously. This is a fundamental question that TikTok detractors have yet to answer. TikTok’s critics have spent a lot of time telling us why we should fear the “Chinese Communist Party.” But putting aside those allegations, I’ve already got plenty of reasons to distrust American social media companies. Americans have endured and witnessed substantial harm by Facebook, Instagram and Twitter under the stewardships of Zuckerberg and Musk. Krishnamoorthi said worries about TikTok allegedly surveilling people critical of the Chinese government makes this app unique. I’d disagree. For example, read this post about a Saudi Arabian official paying at least one Twitter employee to spy on and retrieve data about people critical of the Saudi royal family. Or this article about Facebook handing over potential evidence in the case of a mother and daughter who covered up an abortion in Nebraska. We don’t need to pull ideas for social media regulation out of thin air. And foreign officials have been more committed to solving this problem than officials in the United States have been. Officials in the United Kingdom, for example, are trying to enact a package of regulations that would apply to all social media platforms. So why take a piecemeal approach in the U.S.? Given perennial gridlock in Congress, there’s no reason to think lawmakers would be able to pass separate laws regulating other social media companies down the line.
Ja’han Jones is an MS NOW opinion blogger. He previously wrote The ReidOut Blog. Recommended
Why should Americans trust Mark Zuckerberg, Elon Musk or any other executive of a U.S.-based social media company with our data more than the Chinese government?
Why not follow the U.K.’s lead?
