Banning TikTok

A unanimous US Supreme Court decision allowed a law banning TikTok to stand.

- BOO CHANCO

TikTok must be sold to a non-China-based company. The SCOTUS ruled that the risks to American national security, as a result of the Chinese government's control of TikTok, are more significant than the argument that the law restricts free speech. TikTok poses the same danger to our national security.

TikTok went dark in the US last Saturday but was back online on Sunday. President Donald Trump signed an executive order delaying the TikTok ban for 75 days.

The reprieve gives TikTok time to negotiate a sale that would give the US at least 50 percent ownership control. The Chinese owners have indicated they are not inclined to sell TikTok, but Trump said without US approval, there is no TikTok. The Chinese government has also earlier indicated that they will not allow ByteDance, TikTok's owner, to export its algorithm, which is the heart of TikTok and what makes it so powerful.

What is an algorithm? In simple terms, it is a set of rules and data that determines what content users see on a platform. Social media algorithms, like TikTok's, analyze a user's online behavior, such as what they like, comment on, or share and even the length of time they watch a video.

All this information is used to decide what content to show the user. Algorithms personalize the user's experience, so no two users see the same content.

Facebook, X, Instagram and other social media platforms operate the same way. TikTok's algorithm is just somehow a lot better than everyone else's in doing what they all do.

ByteDance, being Chinese-owned, has raised national security concerns. There is nothing racist about this. Simply, the Chinese communist government tightly controls all Chinese companies which effectively become extensions of the Chinese Communist Party or the state.