The TikTok ban is oddly un-American—and would likely get overturned in court

Politicians take leave of their senses when they’re on the campaign trail. Self-preservation, shaped through the desire to win re-election, comes before principles. How else to explain the sight of 352 members of the House of Representatives voting on Wednesday to pass the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act (also known as the TikTok Act)?

The overwhelming passage of the act, which compels TikTok parent company ByteDance to force a sale of its popular video sharing app or face an outright ban in the United States, feels oddly un-American. (What happened to the idea of capitalism and free enterprise?) It’s also protectionist in a way that brings those who voted for it far closer than comfort with the Chinese politicians they say their vote is designed to protect American citizens from.

But it’s also an overwhelmingly grim sense of Groundhog Day. Because we’ve been here before.

Donald Trump, who bizarrely now believes the app shouldn’t be banned, sought to wage a similar campaign in 2020 against TikTok. Back then, some suggested his anti-TikTok stance stemmed from a desire to present voters on the campaign trail with a foil. (Joe Biden chose to effectively fight a remote Zoom campaign in 2020 as the Covid pandemic ravaged the United States.)

It’s difficult to know whether the politicians who voted to ban TikTok genuinely believe their convictions, or if they’re just trying to look tough ahead of a U.S. presidential campaign where national security is once again front and center.

It’s even more difficult to discern because to date, and despite prodding and poking by a number of journalists, including myself, precisely zero evidence has been presented by the U.S. government or any other to explain why they warn TikTok is a national security threat. (And to be clear: There’s no chance a company making money hand over fist from a fast-growing app that has reshaped the social media landscape over the last five years would willingly sell up.)

At best, it seems like politicians are punishing TikTok for the issues every social media company causes. Ahead of this week’s vote, Federal Communications Commission commissioner Brendan Carr posted on X that “In America, TikTok pushes videos to kids that promote self-harm, eating disorders, and suicide.” The irony of posting that sentiment on a platform that’s also been accused of such behavior was seemingly lost on Carr. And it’s not just TikTok or X: Meta’s suite of apps have been blamed directly by a coroner in a U.K. suicide case that almost exactly describes Carr’s claims.

TikTok, as you’d expect, has gone into full-on attack mode. “This process was secret and the bill was jammed through for one reason: It’s a ban,” the company said in a statement. The company said it hoped the Senate, to whom the bill to ban will now pass, would think more clearly about the risks of an outright ban.

If it doesn’t, we enter yet another Groundhog Day situation. Banning companies from operating in the U.S. requires good reasons and evidence—or else they get caught up in court, and wound down quickly. Donald Trump’s ban didn’t win out in 2020. TikTok fought it until the election passed, and Trump left the White House. Unless there’s a smoking gun that hasn’t been brought out to show the world, this one likely won’t either. It’ll get kicked down the road, the election hype will subside, and people might—hopefully—regain their senses.

https://www.fastcompany.com/91058355/tiktok-ban-oddly-un-american?partner=rss&utm_source=rss&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=rss+fastcompany&utm_content=rss