I don’t know if I’m about to say something that someone has already stated but there are a few reasons I’m aware of.

1. There is nothing preventing another platform from becoming another TikTok. All of the problematic users will just migrate to some other platform that probably has less moderation and continue doing everything they were doing before.

2. I’ve seen some concern about what it could do to the economy. A lot of content creators on TikTok were making money from it and some were successful enough to make a living. Some of these users have expressed that they were either unable to gain an audience on other major platforms or they were banned from them, making TikTok their only significant income source.

3. There are concerns about the hypocrisy of banning TikTok for spying on it’s users when other platforms and services, like Facebook and Windows, do pretty much the same thing.

I imagine because a lot of people use it as a way to run their independent business now, TikTok accounted for $24 billion in gross GDP in 2023. Banning TikTok would be really disruptive to all the people who started using it to run a business, and while they will eventually find a new platform it will be disruptive for them in the short run https://newsroom.tiktok.com/en-us/tiktok-economic-impact-report-2024-smb

Another reason is that it’s relatively unfiltered stream of information where people can discuss issues like the genocide in Palestine that are censored on US owned platforms. If you don’t see why that’s important I don’t know what else to tell you.

All the reasons people cite for supporting the ban are problems with other social media platforms.

Also I think it’s pretty dumb to support government censorship over cringe.

there’s also an economic problem with banning tiktok: tens of millions of americans rely on it as a source of income and its banning will effectively become the biggest layoff in american history and will have detrimental impacts to our already fraught economic situation.

Because it’s censorship by the goverment? also all the bad shit you mentioned can be easily found in most other social media too, should those be banned as well then?

You shouldn’t keep TikTok, it’s trash, same as most social media. But this also shows why banning it is bad. It’s not significantly different from any of the other brain-numbing, privacy-disrespecting trash out there.

It’s not being targeted for the things that are wrong with it, it’s targeted because it’s a Chinese company. That’s the problem with the ban.

Monopolization of social media is a bad thing. The two remaining largest social media companies have both publicly begun supporting far right narratives. (Meta and X)

So what it comes down to is really the possibility that the TikTok algorithm gets controlled. But that’s a distraction. SCOTUS already decided that corporations have first amendment rights. So even if TikTok is controlling it’s algorithm in that way, it has the right to do so. Either that or Hobby Lobby has to pay for birth control for it’s employees.

If you’re worried about national security then these billionaires publicly turning their platforms into international political machines would be a problem too. But they clearly aren’t a priority.

So what’s left other than racism and protectionism? The law is also absolutely unconstitutional because it mentions TikTok by name and that’s a big nono. The Constitution bans that and requires that all laws are enforced equally specifically because the ability to single out one entity with legislation is breathtakingly corrupt.

If you don’t like TikTok that’s fine. But you need to realize what this law is capable of. After banning TikTok by name they can also point the finger at any other social media company (and a couple other sectors) and simply declare them to be controlled by a foreign adversary. Even if it’s wholly owned by US Citizens.

They gave themselves the power to force a fire sale and you all cheered because they said TikTok.

A TikTok ban would consolidate more power into the hands of Mark Zuckerberg and Meta. Arguably, that’s worse.

they’re banning tiktok because people there are denouncing the crimes of israel and, and the ties to the US gvt, and they can’t force censorship like they can on US-based platforms, which are as bad, or even worse, in terms of data protection (since they keep selling & getting the data break which will inevitably end up in chinese hands anyway)

App plaforms contain propaganda but America wants to control the propaganda. TikTok shows what happens when America does not. Suddenly when presented with different viewpoints not allowed on American platforms, people change their opinion of America. See the censorship on Palestine on American platforms as an example.

I don’t use tiktok, I’ve never been interested in using tiktok, and if it was just going out of business or something then I would give precisely zero fuckaroos.

But I don’t need the government making the decision to block it for me arbitrarily. I confess that I’m not studied up on the reasoning behind blocking it (I’ve mostly heard about security concerns), but if Congress and the supreme court actually cared about digital security, then they’d be passing a bill of digital rights right now. Instead of doing that, they’re set on going after TikTok specifically, which tells us two things:

• Because they aren’t passing blanket digital privacy rights, it’s likely that TikTok is not the only company committing these privacy violations, but they don’t want to punish the “wrong” company.
• Given the previous point, it follows that they don’t actually care about digital privacy (duh), so the actual reason for banning them is likely something else. Other people in this thread have pointed out that the US government can’t control propaganda on TikTok like they can other social media, but it could also be as simple as clearing the way for American competitors/lobbyists who stand to profit from the ban.

So yeah, like you I don’t use tiktok so I’m not directly affected by the ban, I might’ve even supported it if it was due to an impartial bill of digital rights, but reasoning behind the actual ban is clearly bullshit on principle just by being so specific, and it sets a dangerous precedent. You saying that TikTok is shit so you don’t care if it gets injustly and unconstitutionally banned is no different then saying that George Floyd was a criminal so you don’t care if he was murdered by cops sans-due-process. You’re being distracted, soulifix. Think about it, if the government cared about addressing the issues with TikTok that you brought up in your post, why are they going after TikTok specifically instead of addressing that behavior generally?

I think it’s often personal, as opposed to objective. A lot of people simply like it and do not want to lose access to something they like.

TikTok apparently pays creators significantly more than other apps.

Honestly you’re wrong. Tiktok has a lot of slop but it also has a lot of the front line reporting about social movements and crimes that Reddit thinks it has or maybe used to have.

It’s about your rights.

I want to decide if tik tok is a horrible thing that I don’t want to use and then choose not to use it. I don’t need the government telling me what is okay and not okay. I’m a grown up and can make that decision for myself.

Cheat sheet: look at all government policies and politicians this way. Regardless if you agree or disagree with the topic/results look at what idea or concept or precedence it sets forth and decide from there. (I personally hate tik tok for many reasons, both socio and political in nature and think it should be burned from he earth - but I don’t support a ban on it) Second cheat sheet: if after that analysis you decide you support an idea, then ask how it gets paid for (whats the soirce of the financing) and who’s in charge of it (how the money gets spent) and what checks and measures are in place to keep it productive (how it gets regulated).