PARK: Banning TikTok will not solve US' privacy problems
Column: The Queue
On Friday, Montana became the first state to vote to ban TikTok on personal devices. In a 54-43 vote, people in the state can no longer download the app from the App Store, but individual users will not be penalized.
The app is one that has taken over the social media generation. Videos less than 10 seconds up to 10-minute long videos on various content go viral daily. My personal "For You" page ranges from slime videos to cooking tutorials to clips from Taylor Swift's most recent tour performance.
U.S. officials want to ban the app out of fear that China's government will gain access to TikTok users' data. While no evidence has been publicized thus far, people are still very hesitant to allow the app's use to continue.
In mid-March, President Joseph R. Biden Jr.'s administration threatened to place a national ban on the app unless the owners of TikTok in China agreed to sell their stake in the company. A national security law requires the Chinese technology company, ByteDance, to turn its data over to the Chinese governmental authorities if asked.
The ban is not surprising in a state like Montana — a traditionally red state whose government cares a lot about people's privacy — but as more and more states continue to ban the app, it is only natural that many will follow suit.
This ban will have a huge effect on users, creators and companies. While people like you and me probably scroll endlessly while lying in bed or on the bus, some people make their living from the TikTok Creator Fund, or through endorsements and sponsorships.
People are starting to experience the real effects of choosing social media as a career path. Especially after the pandemic, many people quit their full-time, in-person corporate jobs to be vloggers or other content creators on TikTok.
Though the app's permanence and stability were never guaranteed, we all thought it would last a lot longer than this.
According to the Pew Research Center, 48 percent of adults 18 to 19 years old use TikTok. An overwhelming majority of Americans support the U.S. government's desire to ban TikTok. This statistic, though, does not include the overwhelming majority of TikTok users who greatly oppose the ban.
Aashir Syed, a Rutgers Business School sophomore, says that as someone who uses social media in his free time, he does not think his posts are very personal, but it is important to be aware of the digital footprint young adults create and how it can impact their future.
It is also important to be aware of information that should not be shared.
"I do not think banning TikTok is a real solution," says Syed. "Restricting an app millions of people use every day is more detrimental and harmful than beneficial ... TikTok is a lot more uncensored, with its content allowing for political movements to catch momentum and information to be spread."
He explained that if a user searches "Paris" on Instagram, pretty photos of the Eiffel Tower and people eating pastries show up, but if looked up on TikTok, results showed several riots that occurred last month.
If users look past the silly dances and trendy challenges, they may find that TikTok is a more unfiltered form of social media that can be somewhat informative for young people.
The TikTok ban will also have a huge impact on corporations that use it as a platform for marketing. Businesses with a primarily Generation Z audience will greatly suffer because it limits one more widely used platform they can market on.
Regarding short clips and videos, YouTube Shorts and Instagram Reels are the less popular sisters of TikTok. Companies constantly have to reassess how they could use social media to market their products efficiently. The videos that do well and generate the most profit on, say, Facebook, will be very different from the ones that succeed on TikTok.
This is also not to say that every other social media app is perfect. Facebook, Instagram and even Apple's iCloud harvest your personal information too. Banning TikTok in the U.S. would be the nation's elimination of the problem rather than a solution.
The real problem is that social media apps are collecting personal information through the digital footprint we each create. Banning TikTok would be more detrimental to both businesses and the app's users.
Living in New Jersey, Rutgers students do not need to be worried about the app being banned here soon, either. Censorship today will be more harmful than helpful, and personal privacy is an issue that the U.S. government should deal with on a larger scale.
Annabel Park is a sophomore at Rutgers Business School majoring in marketing and minoring in health administration. Her column, "The Queue," runs on alternate Tuesdays.
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