TikTok is about to get banned...again?
Plus, top intel officials sloppily risk American lives
What happened: As of April 5, TikTok may be banned in the US again. Maybe. The TikTok ban from January is still in place, it was merely given a temporary reprieve through executive order so that parent company ByteDance could negotiate TikTok’s divestiture. President Trump has stated he may extend the halt on the ban if ByteDance is not able to find a solution in time. However, he also recently stated he believes they are close to a deal.
Take note: TikTok was supposedly banned due to national security concerns. With most threats to national security, time is of the essence and the government moves to address them as quickly as possible. Not in this case, though! If that tells you anything about the reality of the situation. The reality is that there's no evidence that TikTok is an active threat to national security.
If anything, banning it establishes a precedent that negatively affects the future of American values. Here’s why.
The US bans applications for use in different parts of the federal, state, and local government regularly, such as Kaspersky, DeepSeek, and others. This makes sense - there's no need to introduce potential risks to the US government system, especially with the level of sensitive information and activity occurring.
That’s different, however, than banning access to any US citizens. The US has taken down or banned websites for all US citizens before. However, the websites have been perpetrating illegal acts or information: pirated sites, fraudulent sites, scams, or sites specifically made for cyberattacks. There have been a few nuances here and there, but that’s the gist.
One example of a nuance: some websites that share IP addresses with former spam sites. Since IP addresses can be reassigned, legitimate sites can be accidentally blocked if they were assigned an IP address from a formerly malicious site.
Even if this was common in the US (which it isn’t), banning the app for all US citizens doesn't solve the underlying problem. If the problem was that undesirable foreign nations and companies create applications that gain widespread popularity and use among US citizens that pose a national security risk, playing whack-a-mole to knock out these applications isn't timely or sustainable. Further, if that was the reason, the US would also be banning software like DeepSeek and WeChat for all US citizens. Interestingly enough, the US government lost a case attempting to ban WeChat due to free speech violations... as it should.
As someone who wants to ensure national security, not banning TikTok to ensure national security may seem counterintuitive. If the Chinese Communist Party is using TikTok to gather information on US citizens or spread disinformation, we need to manage it. That's a given. However, there's one problem...There's no evidence of this.
There's been no hard evidence that TikTok is being used to gather information on US citizens or that it's being used to spread disinformation in the United States. Assuming an attack without evidence and then restricting millions of Americans (and their potential income streams!) because of it is simply a violation of American values.
Maybe you’re thinking, alright Allie, better safe than sorry. What’s the worst that could happen if we do ban it? Here’s the reason that we are not better safe than sorry in this case.
Since the Internet was created, there has been a push and pull between two points of view on how to control it: democracy and authoritarianism. Democracy thrives in an open Internet, as ideas can be freely exchanged. New ideas can flourish, revolutions can be planned, and differing perspectives can be debated. In contrast to this, authoritarianism thrives in a closed internet, as ideas can be controlled. New ideas can be repressed, dissidents can be subjugated, and propaganda can flood the zone.
The more closed the Internet becomes, the more difficult it is for American (democratic) values like freedom of speech and expression to spread and take hold. While it is difficult to maintain an open Internet (or freedom of speech in general) as it allows for dissent, it is important because it ensures a check on government tyranny. The open Internet is the digital equivalent of the Second Amendment.
It’s more of a national security threat to start down the path of closing our Internet off than anything. Instead, there are a few ways we could support national security and still support American values and interests globally.
Playing whack-a-mole isn't a sustainable strategy. We need to establish security and privacy requirements for all technology companies attempting to do business with United States citizens. Regulations instituted by other countries, like the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), are valuable and universal regulatory tools to this end. It protects the data of EU citizens under any circumstance, when software is created in any country. It also protects what is most vital and enduring: the data of citizens itself. It's not about taking down specific software in the moment; it's about ensuring regulation that stands the test of new types of software, by not making it about the software.
TikTok's success signals a potential failure in investment by American tech companies in innovative applications. Why did TikTok succeed when American technology couldn't? Complacency from monopoly powers. We should be supporting competition in the tech sector, breaking up large tech companies to necessitate innovation, and managing regulatory measures to allow for tech startups to innovate faster with less burden.
Maintaining an open Internet goes beyond the software to the infrastructure. To further US interests abroad, we must support telecommunications infrastructure implementations globally on American or allied technologies. Otherwise, other nations will put their own in place, like China with Huawei. If that happens, we cede the infrastructure to nations that do not share our values. They will be able to more easily control information flow in countries globally.
Just because there's no evidence of an attack now does not mean there will be no evidence later. Evaluate popular, internationally created infrastructure, websites, and applications for its security implications - including TikTok. If there's evidence of data stealing, espionage, or widespread manipulation, the calculus has to change to address it.
Elected representatives sloppily risk American lives
What happened: Many of the Trump administration’s top intelligence officials exchanged messages on the widely popular messaging app Signal and accidentally included a journalist in the chat. It is a severe breach of protocol to share sensitive messages of this nature via public communications channels and puts American pilots (in this case) at risk.
Take note: Any other member of the military to make a mistake of this nature would be discharged and prosecuted without question. American service members and citizens deserve better than this from their leadership.
Missed me last week? I'm moving The Latest Breach to every other week! I'm a Gemini, I try things.
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