House to TikTok: Byte Me

If you’re a political science teacher struggling to get your middle school students excited about learning exactly how a bill becomes a law, this is your moment. The House just passed a bill that could ban TikTok, unless the social network splits from its Chinese-owned parent company ByteDance. “The bill passed with 352 votes, needing a two-thirds majority to advance. Sixty-five members voted against it, with one voting present. The bill still needs to clear the Senate, which is no small task. But President Joe Biden said on Friday he would sign it into law if it passes.” (This morning was the first time my 15 year-old daughter and I have agreed on a school commute topic of conversation since Travis and Taylor started dating.) This ban has been bandied about since at least 2020. In the early days of TikTok’s rise, friends from Pentagon and the CIA advised me to keep my kids off TikTok for some of the very reasons behind today’s ban. (FWIW, they didn’t seem too enthusiastic about me driving a Volvo or flying a DJI drone). I don’t doubt that there are national security and privacy risks associated with TikTok. I do question whether or not the threat posed by TikTok is greater than the one posed by Facebook policies during recent elections or by Twitter’s bubbling cesspool as we approach the next one. Since we’re talking about matters of degree, it’s worth noting that while the House has been able to pass a bill protecting democracy from the somewhat elusive threat posed by TikTok, it has been unwilling to pass a bill defending democracy from the very concrete and immediate threat posed by an expansion-minded Vladamir Putin. That’s one of reasons why—when considering threats to America that are more immediately pressing than TikTok–I’d add the current makeup of the US House to the list.