It looks like the U.S. government is one step closer to telling Americans what they can and can’t watch. Is that ok with you?
Concerns are rising that after there’s been so much talk by the current president, the former president, and the Senate, but now the House of Representatives has actually passed a bill called Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act that passed in a vote 352-65 to ban TikTok.
The bill calls for China’s tech giant ByteDance to either sell TikTok, or the social media video app will be banned/blocked in the U.S..
I get the current anti-Chinese government mindset in the U.S. right now, but what ever happened to freedom of speech?
While my political affiliation is irrelevant to this conversation, I’m unabashedly pro laissez-faire when it comes to business.
For those of you who don’t speak French, laissez-faire means “a doctrine opposing governmental interference in economic affairs beyond the minimum necessary for the maintenance of peace and property rights.” according to Merriam Webster.
I’ll be the first to admit I’m not the biggest TikTok user. I don’t ever have the app on my phone. My company irl Media NEWS does have a TikTok account, but we haven’t posted in months and only have 1 Follower – so yea I clearly don’t get how to grow our following on TikTok.
I did write a post about Universal Music Group removing their music from TikTok in our February 3 issue, as well as a failed effort by the state of Montant trying to ban TikTok in our December 3 issue.
First and foremost I’m concerned about the government restricting our access to anything. I do think there’s a case to be made of protecting kids under 18 from the hazardous effects of social media, but if that was what lawmakers were concerned about then they should have passed a bill to protect children but that’s not what they’re doing.
And there’s also a strong case to be made of protecting U.S. citizen’s personal information and preventing the Chinese government from having access to that data. I’m all about protecting how my personal information is accessed and used, so I completely understand that point.
What bothers me the most is just having the government tell me what I can and can’t do. I know adulting is hard, but it’s my choice what apps I want to use, what videos I want to watch, and what social media I want to allow my kids to use (verdict: NONE!).
Just like banning what books libraries are allowed to carry and citizens are allowed to read, I think it’s a slippery slope to begin saying what apps should be banned.
Playing Devil’s Advocate, the Chinese government does ban most U.S. social media apps in their country preventing their citizens from accessing apps from Facebook, Twitter/X, Google, and Instagram to name a few.
Is there a case to be made against blocking Chinese apps in the U.S. at the cost of restricting American citizen’s right to make our own choices?
