{"id":1938,"date":"2024-03-09T21:04:00","date_gmt":"2024-03-09T21:04:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gregmaxwell.net\/?p=1938"},"modified":"2025-08-21T19:48:15","modified_gmt":"2025-08-21T19:48:15","slug":"tik-tok-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gregmaxwell.net\/index.php\/2024\/03\/09\/tik-tok-times\/","title":{"rendered":"TiK ToK Times"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

On Tuesday, a bipartisan group of lawmakers introduced<\/a> a bill that would give TikTok<\/a> owner ByteDance a deadline to divest itself of the social-media platform. If the law passes and the deadline is not met, the app could face a ban. On Thursday, some TikTok users opened their apps and encountered this message:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

Speak up now \u2014 before your government strips 170 million<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Americans of their Constitutional right to free expression.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This will damage millions of businesses, destroy the livelihoods of countless creators across the country, and deny artists an audience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let Congress know what TikTok means to you and tell them to vote<\/p>\n\n\n\n

NO.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

This is surprising but not unprecedented. When facing potential regulation, Facebook, Uber, Airbnb<\/a>, and many other apps have asked users to lobby on their behalf; TikTok itself has previously made its case directly to the public too. Most of the time, these sorts of things are easy to ignore, and most people do \u2014\u00a0you tap a little x, or hit the back button, and scroll on. Except when you can\u2019t:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This was my experience as well, and that of numerous others online: I opened TikTok and found an undismissable screen demanding that I call my representative. The only options were to go through with the call or to hard-reset the app. Pretty bold! A lot of young people might be learning the names of their representatives today. And some of them are getting through. Asked if they\u2019d been receiving a lot of calls about TikTok, a friendly operator at the Capitol switchboard said, \u201cYes we have,\u201d before forwarding me to the office of a New York representative, where a somewhat less cheery staffer confirmed that the office had been \u201cflooded with calls\u201d about TikTok.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s entirely possible that the app issue was an implementation error \u2014 while some users report being stuck at the screen, others had an option to dismiss it. In any case, TikTok\u2019s message here is unusually direct. The company is genuinely worried about a ban:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s a reasonable concern! While public sentiment among voting-age Americans is somewhat skewed<\/a> against TikTok, Republican and Democratic lawmakers really <\/em>don\u2019t seem to like it. To conservatives, it\u2019s a Chinese-influence operation wearing a bad disguise. Some liberals are sympathetic to this view, but they also have a different problem with the platform, namely that it\u2019s an unruly space in which young progressives are extremely critical<\/a> of the Biden administration in front of large audiences. (Senator John Fetterman, for example, has accused<\/a> the app of giving users a \u201cwarped\u201d view of the war in Gaza.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s a legislative appetite for this in other words, although it\u2019s unclear what might happen if such a ban were to pass. Montana\u2019s statewide TikTok ban was ultimately blocked in federal court, but legal experts<\/a> have suggested that a national ban might be easier to defend on national-security grounds. In the meantime, TikTok would very much appreciate its users\u2019 help.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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