By Paola Ruiz
Mar 29, 2024, 01:59 AM EDT
The United States House of Representatives approved a bill to ban TikTok from the country’s app stores, with 352 congressmen in favor and 65 against. Now the process must go to the Senate. If it finally passes, President Joe Biden has announced that he will sign the law. All this, unless TikTok separates from its owners, the Chinese company ByteDance. The cause of the debate? The data of North American citizens in a company with “ties” to the Chinese government. The US considers it a threat to national security.
More than 170 million Americans currently use TikTok. It will not be easy for legislators from both parties, nor for the president, to make such a decision. Thousands of young voters do not agree with the law, and 2024 is, as everyone knows, a very important election year. It also does not seem easy for any North American company to be able to buy TikTok and thus avoid its ban. Everything will be seen. It would be the best solution, so as not to affect the country’s youth, and at the same time protect their data.
TikTok has been on a knife edge for a long time. Six months ago, the platform imposed severe regulations in order to protect minors and limit vulgar or discriminatory content. However, these regulations are automatically handled by an algorithm, which removes or blocks said content.
The process has been chaotic. Honest users, who do not violate the community rules, have been affected by the measure. Many creators have complained about their videos being removed, or even accounts being blocked or limited. And although TikTok claims that the limitations “are a myth,” the truth is that many users upload videos that appear as “not available to you.” This means that, although the video was published, TikTok limited it to the public and it is not viewable.
What can be done?
Regarding the arbitrariness of the new algorithm, contacting TikTok is an odyssey. There is no direct way, unlike other platforms. The only way is to make a complaint in the application, which will be responded to, automatically, by the algorithm! If deleted videos are appealed, they will sometimes be restored. However, claims of limited videos, which is a dark area, are never answered.
As a TikTok expert, I defend the permanence of the platform in the United States. I really don’t know if, as the Administration says, it is a danger to national security. But I admit that TikTok still has a long way to go to solve its transparency problems.
These problems cause users and creators to migrate to other platforms such as Instagram, YouTube, Facebook, Twitch, Kik or Flip.
Paola Ruiz is a content creator in Miami, graduated in International Relations and Political Science. https://www.instagram.com/paoruizb_/