Is the US government scared of TikTok’s ‘progressive politics’?
Tick tock, tick tock … that’s the sound of time running out for Gen Z’s favourite app. On Wednesday the House of Representatives overwhelmingly passed a bill would require the TikTok owner ByteDance to sell the social media platform or get banned in the US. It’s not clear whether the bill would pass in the Senate. However, the White House has said it supports the legislation. All in all, things don’t look great for TikTok.
Lawmakers would have you believe that the reason they’re on the warpath when it comes to TikTok is because Beijing-based ByteDance is a national security threat. They’re worried that China is going to do nefarious things with personal user data and that the TikTok algorithm has the ability to unduly influence Americans. It should be noted that while these fears aren’t unfounded, lawmakers’ obsession with the platform being controlled by China seems to ignore the fact that – as the Financial Times notes – “some 60% of [ByteDance] is actually owned by ‘international’ investors, overwhelmingly American”.
While the US government may be citing national security as their motivation for clamping down on TikTok, influential model and activist Emily Ratajkowski has other ideas. On Thursday Ratajkowski told her 2.7 milliom TikTok followers that she reckons the government wants to ban the platform because it has become a hub for progressive activism.
“Because this is one of the few platforms that isn’t completely controlled by the US government, or through corporations that have the US government’s interest in mind, progressive politics have been able to blossom on here,” Ratajkowski said.
“TikTok is being banned,” she added, “because the US government is legitimately scared with the influence that it’s having … which to me indicates that TikTok is a very powerful tool for organization, for alternative thinking and for activism.”
There’s certainly an argument to be made that the US government isn’t pleased with some of the progressive politics popping up on TikTok. Last year, for example, a number of members of Congress, along with some conservative activists and tech investors, expressed their outrage about the amount of pro-Palestinian content on the platform and argued that TikTok’s algorithm was biased towards Palestine. Funnily enough these same people don’t seem to have much to say about reports which show the US mainstream media is biased towards pro-Israel coverage. Nor do these critics seem particularly concerned about reports from the likes of Human Rights Watch which say Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, systemically censors voices in support of Palestine.
TikTok, for its part, has said its algorithm isn’t pro-Palestine. Rather, the company noted in a statement, content on the platform simply reflects the fact that it has a young user base and “attitudes among young people skewed toward Palestine long before TikTok existed”. That said, it’s not even clear that there’s more pro-Palestinian content on TikTok than pro-Israel content – a lot depends on how you interpret that data. Nevertheless, it is certainly perceived to be friendlier towards pro-Palestinian content than other social media platforms.
To be clear: I’m not trying to argue that US lawmakers want to ban TikTok just because of pro-Palestinian voices on the platform. Nor am I saying that TikTok is some beacon of progressive values. Far from it. It has a history of censoring LGBT content in certain areas. And, like almost every other social media app out there, it sucks up swathes of your personal data and does god knows what with it. I think it is right to be wary of TikTok’s power and influence and I think everyone should be alarmed at how much power a single app has. But it’s hardly like TikTok is the only worrying social media platform out there is it? If the US government wants to regulate how much influence tech companies have, and the extent to which they can mine our personal data, then they need to do it across the board, rather than singling out one particular platform.
Again, I don’t think TikTok is, in itself, a beacon of progressive values. However, Ratajkowski is right in saying it has been a useful platform for a lot of progressive activists. Not just when it comes to Palestine, but also when it comes to issues like abortion, trans rights and anti-racism efforts. In increasingly authoritarian times we need to protect free speech with everything we’ve got. Banning TikTok is a blatant attack on our first amendment rights and the bipartisan support this ban is receiving should worry us all. Cheering on government-led censorship is a dangerous road that doesn’t lead anywhere good.
Billy Baldwin attacks Sharon Stone’s sex claims in misogynistic rant
Earlier this week Stone told the Louis Theroux podcast that she’d been pressured into sleeping with Baldwin in the 1993 film Silver. Per Stone, the late Robert Evans, who headed production at Paramount, said she should have sex with her co-star to improve his performance. “Not sure why Sharon Stone keep talking about me all these years later?” Baldwin tweeted on Tuesday. “Does she still have a crush on me or is she still hurt after all these years because I shunned her advances?” He added: “Wonder if I should write a book and tell the many, many disturbing, kinky and unprofessional tales about Sharon? That might be fun.” Baldwin (not to be confused with his more successful brother Alec) has had an extremely forgettable career and I’ve got a feeling these sexist tweets are going to end up being what he’s most famous for.
Who’s Afraid of Gender? by Judith Butler review
“Because Butler is a human rights activist, as well as a theorist, the urgent point conveyed by this book is the same as it is in all their work,” writes Finn MacKay in a Guardian review of Butler’s new book, which advocates for gender diversity. “Why are so many people seemingly happy to give away their power to increasingly authoritarian forces? And why are they so confident that this power will never be used against them?”
Missouri law prevents divorce during pregnancy – even in cases of violence
This law isn’t new but has recently gained nationwide attention. Partly because Missouri is currently generating a ton of headlines for all the wrong reasons.
No equality for working women in any country in the world, study reveals
Closing the gap could raise global gross domestic product by more than 20%, said the World Bank report.
A meeting of the UN body promoting equality for women starts with five male speakers
This sort of thing – which is so incredibly easy to avoid – seems to happen all the time.
The share of female inventors has grown in the US
That’s according to an analysis of patents in the technology space. The highest share of female inventors was in chemistry (about 18%) and the lowest was in mechanical engineering (6%).
Denmark plans to conscript women for military service for first time
“We do not rearm because we want war. We are rearming because we want to avoid it,” said the prime minister, Mette Frederiksen.
The week in pawtriarchy
Dogs aren’t just adorable, spending time with one can actually boost your brain power. That’s a according to a new study out of Konkuk University in South Korea, which found the strength of participants’ brain waves increased during canine interactions. A good excuse, I reckon, to take a break from work and go pet a dog.
