The American people are disappointed in this government’s inability to pass helpful, effective legislation that meaningfully improves lives. Gun control? No. Increased access to healthcare? No. Ensuring reproductive rights and freedoms? No. Ensuring equality for LGBTQIA+ Americans? No. Raising the minimum wage and reducing cost of living? No. Addressing reparations for descendants of enslaved Africans who built the wealth of this country? No. Ending the genocide of Palestinians funded by our tax dollars? No.
Instead the House of Representatives decided to move swiftly to pass a bill that could ban TikTok in the U.S. unless the app parts ways with its Chinese parent company, ByteDance. Approximately 170 million Americans use TikTok.
Proponents of this bill say they care about national security and want to protect user data privacy and security. Meanwhile, U.S. based companies such as Meta, which includes Facebook, continue to farm and sell user data and have posed actual security threats to its users. In April 2021, personal data pertaining to 533 million Facebook users was made public on an online forum. Furthermore, Congress has not put forth sweeping legislation to comprehensively address data privacy and security on social media platforms more broadly.
A TikTok ban infringes upon freedom of speech and severely undercuts politicians’ reach to young people, the group they consistently need to vote for them.
I’m asking you to reject this TikTok ban bill. Your decision will impact the 2024 elections. If you delay this decision after the elections, we will remember who voted to ban TikTok instead of actually proposing meaningful legislation to ensure data privacy and security.
