TikTok Ban Argument Map by Youssef Aly

Should TikTok be Banned?

yma40_ — 2023-11-22 21:10:16 UTC

Yes

yma40_ — 2023-11-22 21:10:22 UTC

No

yma40_ — 2023-11-22 21:10:50 UTC

TikTok is a National Security Threat

yma40_ — 2023-11-23 00:05:21 UTC

TikTok is owned by Byte Dance which is a Chinese company. According to Chinese Law, the government of China can access data if they wish to choose from any of their companies. For that reason, the US government is scared that the government could access and track the data of US citizens and their officials.

Existing Bans

yma40_ — 2023-11-23 00:09:46 UTC

For that reason, the "US House of Representatives have banned TikTok from government devices" (Karimi 2023), as well as other states disallowing government officials from having the app. The app is not banned for the wider audience in the US but they are debating whether it should be. Other countries, however, like India have banned TikTok throughout their countries because of tensions and fear of spying from China

Level of Spying from TikTok

yma40_ — 2023-11-23 00:18:48 UTC

According to Robyn Caplan, "The general consensus from the privacy community is that TikTok collects a lot of data, but it’s not out of step with the amount of data collected by other apps,” (Maheshwari 2023). People against the ban cite this to show that the data recovered by TikTok isn't revolutionary and is shared by all social media companies. If people are okay with Facebook and Instagram tracking their data, then they would have no problem with TikTok since it doesn't affect them.

Apathy

yma40_ — 2023-11-23 00:20:15 UTC

Most people who use social media are well aware that a lot of their data is being tracked whether it is Facebook or TikTok, most do not care since the information that the companies collect does not really affect them

Addiction

yma40_ — 2023-11-23 00:25:06 UTC

TikTok has gained over a billion globally since its creation back in 2017 and has taken control of the social media market. Certain features on the app have shown it to be more addicting then other apps

Effects

yma40_ — 2023-11-23 00:32:44 UTC

"Every day, users spend an average of an hour and a half on TikTok, which is nearly double the average time spent on Facebook or Instagram." (Karimi 2023). The platform TikTok is designed in a way to addict the user by having short videos.

Effects On Children

yma40_ — 2023-11-23 00:33:42 UTC

A large part of Tiktok's audience are children and adolescents so it is worrying for lawmakers and parents that their children are spending a lot of time on this app

Disinformation

yma40_ — 2023-11-23 00:36:42 UTC

Although TikTok has guidelines, a lot of content still bypasses it and spreads misinformation about controversial topics to the public.

Expression

yma40_ — 2023-11-23 00:42:23 UTC

Like other social media apps, the purpose of TikTok is to help users express themselves and get a following by showing their passions and talents to the whole world, and a lot of people do not want to lose that ability.

TikTok has a wide variety of content

yma40_ — 2023-11-23 02:56:19 UTC

Unlike other apps, the amount of content that can expressed on TikTok is nearly endless. You can make videos on any of your passions, you can educate people on certain topics, you can promote businesses, or you could just entertain anyone with short 30 seconds videos.

Money

yma40_ — 2023-11-23 02:58:14 UTC

A reason why there is a backlash from banning TikTok is that a lot of people use it to promote their businesses or themselves, which gives them money. Without TikTok, they'd have to rely on their other socials which aren't as possible and would lose a lot of money.

Conclusion

yma40_ — 2023-11-23 03:07:00 UTC

From my perspective, which might be biased since I use TikTok, I don't think it should be banned because there is not certain evidence that China has asked ByteDance to transfer data, and even if they did, there is no danger for me to have my data stolen. If you want to apply all the criticisms to TikTiok then you should be fair and do the same to other social media apps. I think if the government wants to ban it for their workers then its fine, but for the consumers who benefit a lot from it, they should leave it available.

yma40_ — 2023-11-23 03:13:45 UTC

Karimi, Faith. “Lawmakers Are Trying to Ban Tiktok. That Won’t Be Easy -- It’s Part of Our Culture Now.” CNN, Cable News Network, 7 Jan. 2023, www.cnn.com/2023/01/07/us/tiktok-ban-culture-cec/index.html.