U.S. Press Starts To Figure Out College TikTok Bans Are A Dumb Performance

One, the bans are generally designed to agitate a xenophobic base and give the impression the GOP is “doing something about China.” But the party that couldn’t care less about rampant corruption or privacy violations isn’t doing much of anything meaningful to thwart China. In fact, letting adtech, telecom, and app companies run rampant with little oversight runs contrary to any such goal.

Two, the bans distract the public and press from our ongoing failure on consumer privacy and security issues. Banning TikTok, but doing nothing about the accountability optional free for all that is the adtech and data-hoovering space, doesn’t actually fix anything. China can just obtain the same data from a universe of other international companies facing little real oversight on data collection.

Three, the ban is really just about money. Trump gave the game away with his proposal that TikTok be chopped up and sold to Oracle and Walmart. That cronyistic deal fell through, but it’s pretty clear that this moral panic is designed to either help TikTok’s competitors (Facebook lobbyists are very active on this front), or force the sale of the most popular app in modern history to GOP-allies. At which point they’ll engage in all the surveillance and influence efforts they pretend to be mad about.

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As panicked states and colleges ban TikTok, students roll their eyes

The Lunacy of Banning TikTok From University Networks

These are valid concerns, but apps such as Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat, and YouTube also harvest vast amounts of data about users. Their algorithms do far more than simply supply information. Facebook’s and YouTube’s algorithms, for example, have both been found to encourage right-wing extremism. They are, as Wray and Texas’ news release lamented regarding TikTok, distorting the ideas Americans encounter. Why aren’t we blocking them, too? The obvious answer is that none of these companies are owned by a Chinese firm. But can’t firms such as Meta, Twitter, and Google execute the same harms officials have listed from within the U.S.?

Facebook did little to stop Cambridge Analytica, a non-American political firm, from harvesting thousands of pieces of information about 50 million Americans to help Donald Trump’s presidential campaign in 2016. The firm used that data to target Americans with extremely specific, and at times false and misleading, political messages. It’s debatable whether that data ended up helping Trump’s campaign. Either way, this American-based app didn’t pose a potential threat to democracy—it was one. It’s never been blocked on public university networks.

Let’s consider Google. Is there a company that knows more about us? Google records browser and YouTube search histories, owns Fitbit—which has stored more than 30 million Americans’ biometric data—and often has access to our locations. Google’s in-home products know everything from what temperature we keep our homes to who’s ringing our doorbells. While there is no evidence Google services are purposely leaking or manipulating our information to benefit those who might harm democracy, the tech giant admitted to a data breach in 2018 that exposed half a million users’ personal data. Nearly every tech firm, including personal identity protection firm LifeLock, has been breached. Who has access to all the stolen personal information resulting from these breaches?

Ultimately, American-based tech firms’ collect, track, and share massive amounts of Americans’ personal data and have powerful algorithms that can distort the flow of information in ways that endanger democracy—just like TikTok. While TikTok is unique in its Chinese ownership, we have ample evidence American-based firms meet the criteria on government officials’ lists of concerns about the popular app.