For what it’s worth*, here’s my prediction surrounding all the hype from politicians about banning TikTok because it’s a “security threat”** for the country. It ain’t gonna happen. Here’s my reasoning:
First, TikTok is so popular right now that there would be a major uproar from kids, teens, high schoolers, college students and young adults. I can imagine protests, some looting and maybe even voting (gasp!).
Second, and most importantly to the politicians, there is too much money involved. TikTok will simply donate too much to politicians and PACs (legally and via bribes) to get the politicians to stall any real action.
Third, pontificating about the dangers of TikTok gives the politicians something to misdirect attention to, while they ignore taking substantive action to address real problems like healthcare costs, public safety, political finance reform, insider trading, monopolies, etc. Since they can no longer rely on their 50 year “Roe Vs. Wade” fake battle, they need a new target. (Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain).
And finally, if they ever do get around to doing some sort of control or banning of TikTok, it will take years. By that time, everyone will have moved on to the next best thing.
If there’s one thing we can count on from our senior citizen political power elite, it’s their total cluelessness and lack of urgency in responding to anything that involves involves technology.
*essentially nothing since I’m terrible at forecasting the future.
**Politicians and pundits have expressed concern that TikTok enables the China government to siphon up all kinds of data on the US population to use for nefarious reasons while also propagating anti-American sentiment to our youth. Apparently it’s OK with them that Facebook, Google and every other company on the Internet does this because they’re not owned by China. I personally do not use TikTok and avoid many other apps and websites because of their data collection practices. I think a bigger risk for the US from TikTok is the Ideocracy effect from watching stupid videos. We’re becoming a society of Wall-E morons.