Supposedly, the land of the free, home of the brave; the United States has always been a nation that prides itself on safety and lack of censorship.
On Mar. 14, 2024, the United States’ government passed H.R.7521, or the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act (colloquially known as “the TikTok ban”).
As a result of this, TikTok was banned at 11:00 p.m. EST on Saturday, Jan. 18th, an hour before the court-appointed date. CBS News claimed that this early ban was of the app’s own accord, taking itself off of app stores in the U.S.
American users were also shown a notification reading, “A law banning TikTok has been enacted in the U.S. Unfortunately, that means you can’t use TikTok for now. We are fortunate that President Trump has indicated that he will work with us on a solution to reinstate TikTok once he takes office. Please stay tuned!” TikTok was soon unbanned, and supposedly everything was fixed by the hands of current President Trump.
Sure, TikTok is back. There’s no fear, everything’s resolved, right? Incorrect. This has only just begun. H.R.7521 isn’t just a TikTok ban. It’s a chance for the United States government to remove any foreign application they don’t like and shove it under the rug.
From congress.gov, “This bill prohibits distributing, maintaining, or providing internet hosting services for a foreign adversary controlled application.” The only exceptions to this rule are if said application sells itself–either in part or in its entirety–to the United States government, or if the application is used for customer reviews of some kind. Therefore, the U.S. government has full permission to ban almost everything, including news, from our app stores.
Maybe that’s fine. Maybe it’s not that big of a deal. But almost every other social media site is American-owned. (Meta, which owns Instagram, Threads as an extension, Whatsapp, and Facebook. Snapchat, Youtube, Twitch, X/Twitter, Reddit, Linkedin, Pinterest, Discord, Clubhouse, etc.) So therefore, the majority of the apps that dictate what we see on a day to day basis when we doom scroll (as everyone does) are American.
This could be alright, but people use social media for news (even if they shouldn’t), and with social media, Americans (as well as people generally), have easy access to personal experiences and stories of people in the midst of certain terrifying events and topics (current situations in Palestine, Israel, and Haiti for some examples). Even though people on American-owned platforms have the same opportunity, worst-case scenario, the American government may not want us to see something. So on an American social media platform, we wouldn’t. On a foreign-owned site, that dilemma does not apply. “Well, there are still non-American news websites.” How often does the average American check Reuter, BBC, or The Guardian, instead of turning on their local news channel or pulling up USA Today, NBC, The Wall Street Journal, or Time Magazine? Even still, that’s not the point. The crux of the matter ist that H.R.7521 has power beyond banning TikTok.
H.R.7521 is serious. TikTok never mattered; it was an afterthought (in the website, it isn’t mentioned until you reach the bottom of the page, listed as an example of what the bill could mean); there’s so much more to be worried about.
