The US government moved closer to banning the video social media app TikTok after the House of Representatives I actually have attached the measurement on an emergency spending bill on April 17, 2024. The move could improve the bill's probabilities within the Senate, and President Joe Biden has indicated as much he’ll sign the bill when it reaches his desk.
The bill would force ByteDance, the Chinese company that owns TikTok, to either sell its American holdings to a U.S. company or face a ban within the country. The company announced this resist any try to force a sale.
The proposed laws was motivated by quite a lot of national security concerns. On the one hand, ByteDance might be required to assist the Chinese Communist Party collect information, it is claimed Chinese National Intelligence Law. In other words, the information collected by TikTok can theoretically be utilized by the Chinese government.
Additionally, the recognition of TikTok within the US and the indisputable fact that many young people get their news through the platform – a 3rd of Americans under 30 years old – makes it a robust tool for Chinese political influence.
In fact, the US Office of the Director of National Intelligence recently claimed that TikTok accounts operated by a Chinese propaganda arm of the federal government targeted candidates from each political parties throughout the 2022 US midterm elections and the Chinese Communist Party could attempt to influence the US elections in 2024 to sideline critics of China and increase social divisions within the United States.
The proponents of the law have added two further arguments to those concerns: It is just right to limit TikTok due to China bans most US-based social media networks to operate there, and such a ban can be nothing recent, because the US already restricts foreign ownership vital media networks.
Some of those arguments are stronger than others.
China doesn't need TikTok to gather data on Americans. The Chinese government can Purchase all the information you would like from data brokers because there are not any significant federal data protection laws within the USA. The indisputable fact that China, a rustic criticized by Americans for its authoritarian practices, bans social media platforms is hardly a reason for the US to do the identical.
I imagine that the general impact of those claims is important and that the laws as an entire is plausible. But banning the app can be a diversionary tactic.
In recent years, my colleagues and I at UMass Boston Applied Ethics Center have examined the results of AI systems on people's self-image. That's why I believe the recent push against TikTok misses the purpose: Americans' sources of knowledge have deteriorated, and the issue goes beyond individual social media platforms.
The deeper problem
Perhaps probably the most compelling argument for banning TikTok is that the app's ubiquity and the indisputable fact that so many young Americans get their news from it makes it an efficient app Instrument for political influence. But the proposed solution of transferring the app to U.S. ownership ignores a fair more fundamental threat.
The deeper problem shouldn’t be that the Chinese government can easily manipulate content on the app. Rather, people think it's okay to get their news from social media in the primary place. In other words, the true national security gap is that individuals have change into resigned to checking out about social media.
Social media shouldn’t be intended to tell people. It is meant to draw consumer attention within the interest of advertisers. With slight differences, that is the business model of all platforms. Because of this, much of the content people encounter on social media is violent, divisive, and disturbing. Controversial posts that evoke strong feelings literally capture the eye of usersstay in the attention for longer and offer advertisers higher opportunities to monetize their engagement.
There is a crucial difference between actively consuming reputable and punctiliously verified information and manipulating it to spend as much time as possible on a platform. The former is the lifeblood of democratic citizenship, because with the intention to take part in political decisions as a citizen, one will need to have reliable information on current issues. The latter amounts to misusing your attention for another person's financial gain.
If TikTok is banned, a lot of its users will probably be affected will likely migrate to Instagram and YouTube. This would profit Meta and Google, their parent firms, but not national security. People would still be exposed to as much junk news as before, and experience shows that these social media platforms may be vulnerable to manipulation. After all, primarily the Russians used Facebook and Twitter to interfere within the 2016 election.
Media and technology literacy
That Americans have chosen to get their information from entities which have no real interest in informing them undermines the very need for serious political participation, namely informed decision-making. This problem can’t be solved by restricting access to third-party apps.
Research suggests this only alleviates it Teaching media and technology literacy habits from a young age. It involves teaching young people how social media firms make cash, how algorithms influence what they see on their phones, and the way several types of content affect them psychologically.
My colleagues and I actually have just began a pilot program to advertise digital media literacy Boston Mayor's Youth Council. We refer to Boston's youth leaders about how the technologies they use on daily basis are eroding their privacy, the role of algorithms in shaping every thing from their musical tastes to their political sympathies, and the way generative AI is changing their pondering and pondering Thinking skills will affect Write clearly and even who you count as your folks.
We plan to present them with evidence concerning the negative impact of excessive social media use on their mental health. We'll refer to them about how they will take a break from their phones and develop a healthy skepticism about what they see on social media.
Protecting people's ability to think critically is a challenge that requires bipartisan attention. Some of those media and technology literacy measures might not be popular with technology users and technology firms. But I imagine they’re needed to lift thoughtful residents, reasonably than passive social media consumers who’ve ceded their attention to industrial and political actors who would not have their interests at heart.
image credit : theconversation.com