Close to half of American adults favor TikTok ban, Reuters/Ipsos poll shows::Close to half of American adults support a ban on the Chinese-owned social media app TikTok, according to a new Reuters/Ipsos survey that also asked questions about national security concerns and China.
Being worried about CCP controlled apps is a sensible concern. Banning a single app (because Mark Zuckerberg is upset that it’s stealing his customers) is not a helpful solution.
I’m not saying that’s not concerning (it’s why I won’t use it). I think what they can do with widespread analytics and pseudonymous data collection is… potentially impactful in ways we can’t foresee.
But the Bill of Rights does not only apply to US citizens. And targeted bans are just a tool of government censorship that I’d rather not see wielded by politicians. I think the only reason it’s targeted is because they either don’t have evidence of the negative behavior or they’re unwilling to ban the it because it would impact domestic platforms.
The bill of rights isn’t relevant here. TikTok is not a person foreign or domestic (citizens united not withstanding).
This would be hardly any different from the thousands of import bans the US has used over the years. It’s just an app instead of a physical good.
Import bans are similarly terrible, in the vast majority of cases.
We put import restrictions on groups of things. We ban cheese from France. We don’t ban cheese specifically from Jacques Cheese Emporium in Lyon but all other French cheese is okay.
Hey, I’m okay with banning the import of all Chinese social media apps if you are 🙂