Despite All The Problems We're Facing, TikTok Was The Biggest Issue For Biden And Congress

Taryn Finley
·2 min read
A new law gives TikTok's parent company up to a year to divest itself from the video-sharing platform or it will disappear from Apple and Google app stores in the U.S.
A new law gives TikTok's parent company up to a year to divest itself from the video-sharing platform or it will disappear from Apple and Google app stores in the U.S. Jaap Arriens/NurPhoto via Getty Images

TikTok could be a thing of the past for users in the United States within a year after President Joe Biden signed into law a bill that would force its Chinese owner, ByteDance, to sell its stake in TikTok or the app will be banned.

Congress fast-tracked the bill’s passage by folding it into high-priority foreign aid legislation aimed at providing assistance to Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan. The ban has drawn bipartisan support, with lawmakers citing national security and data privacy concerns. ByteDance has said it will not be selling TikTok and plans to fight the ban in court.

The biggest issue here is not that the Chinese government could access Americans’ data and feed them misinformation that could interfere with the 2024 election, something that Meta allowed with Facebook. It’s that there are bigger issues affecting Americans’ everyday lives that aren’t being addressed with the same urgency — and in some cases, are being fully ignored.

Mass incarceration. Gun control. The student loan debt crisis. Climate change. The housing crisis. Inflation. Inequities in the education system. And this is nowhere near being an exhaustive list.

There are plenty of issues that deserve bipartisan attention from Congress, yet legislators took aim at an app that more than 270 million Americans use to find fun, education and community, HuffPost reporter Taiyler Mitchell noted on the latest episode of “I Know That’s Right.”

Listen to the episode here. 

Social media misinformation isn’t mutually exclusive to TikTok, and it won’t go away if the app gets banned in this country.

The app’s fate isn’t quite sealed, however, Mitchell said. Check out the episode to hear about what’s going on with the potential ban and what could happen before its deadline is up.

If you want more interviews, pop culture rundowns and conversations too layered for a social media thread to tackle, subscribe to “I Know That’s Right.” With new episodes dropping each week, this show is sure to keep you entertained, informed and shouting “I know that’s right!” every now and then.