TikTok is one of the largest social media platforms on the market, and has a massive audience
all over the world. Due to this widespread access, fears have arisen about the security of people’s data on the app. This all came to a head when the US Government filed a bill to ban TikTok in the entire country, and it was a disaster of a hearing, showing how out of touch the current representatives really were.
The reason that TikTok was brought onto the chopping block was due to its parent company, ByteDance, being a Chinese company. US officials believed that the app was being used to steal American citizen’s data and curate a specific algorithm for them to spread propaganda. The CEO of TikTok, Shou Zi Chew, was brought before Congress to testify about the app’s connection with the Chinese Communist Party, leading to widespread backlash and ridicule.
During the hearing, the US Representatives showed just how out of touch they really were, asking Shou several misinformed or blatantly ignorant questions that made Americans question if any of them even understood how cellphones or the internet worked. Republican Richard Hudson asked, “Mr Chew, does TikTok access the home WiFi network?” Shou replied, giving him the benefit of the doubt, “Only if the user turns on the WiFi. I’m sorry, I may not understand the question.” This answer led to Hudson doubling down and asking, “So if I have the TikTok app on my phone and my phone is on my home WiFi network, does TikTok access that network?” This exchange, along with many others during the hearing, was met with online ridicule all over the country, with people mocking the representatives for their apparent ignorance at the most basic concepts of electronics and the internet.
“Do you have ties to the communist party” – A question Senator Tom Cotton of Arkansas asked Shou Chew who just reiterated that he has no ties to China and is a proud citizen of Singapore. “Are you a citizen of any other nation?” Cotton asks Chew again, to which he says again that he’s a citizen of Singapore. “Have you ever applied for Chinese citizenship?” to which Chew says that he’s a proud Singaporean citizen who also served in the army. “Have you ever been a member of the Chinese Communist Party?”, to which Chew says again, that he’s Singaporean. “Have you ever been associated or affiliated with the Chinese Communist Party?”, to which he says “No Senator, I’m Singaporean.” This left many viewers of the trial shocked and appalled at how out of touch and even clueless to how the world works, not to mention their other clueless statements on “If I were to wear earbuds and watch TikTok, can TikTok access my brain” which truly shows how much of a joke our legislators are.
Come January 18th, after a lot of back and forth in the supreme court, TikTok was banned in the US, going offline roughly at 10:45PM EST. The ‘TikTok Blackout’ caused a lot of users to flock to platforms like Instagram Reels, Youtube Shorts and others. Rednote, another Chinese-Owned short form video content had a mass influx of American users in protest of the banning of TikTok because it’s “chinese”.
Overall the banning of TikTok is evidently embarrassing. A communist country beat capitalism so badly that the American government had to ban it through a series of extremely questionable and confusing questions and demands. With President Trump’s delay of the ban, only time will tell as to if TikTok will stay in the United States.
