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.
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.
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?
This is a fundamental…
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