{"id":65270,"date":"2024-06-11T16:31:39","date_gmt":"2024-06-11T23:31:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/?p=65270"},"modified":"2024-06-11T16:31:39","modified_gmt":"2024-06-11T23:31:39","slug":"when-it-comes-to-the-youth-vote-bidens-tiktok-ban-is-bad-politics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/?p=65270","title":{"rendered":"When it Comes to the Youth Vote, Biden\u2019s TikTok Ban is Bad Politics"},"content":{"rendered":"
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By<\/span>Jeannine Chiang<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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For young people like me, the ban is a direct violation of our nation\u2019s most fundamental freedom and, if it goes forward, could further erode support for the Biden campaign.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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The clock is ticking for TikTok, the wildly popular social media platform that boasts 150 million monthly users in the U.S. Citing national security the Biden Administration in April ordered the Chinese-owned company to sell its US operations within a year or be banned.<\/p>\n

For young people like me, the ban is a direct violation of our nation\u2019s most fundamental freedom and, if it goes forward, could further erode support for the Biden campaign.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s so cooked,\u201d said Cindy, a junior at Burlingame High School near San Francisco, using a phrase popularized by the app itself. Still, she described TikTok as a form of \u201cbrain rot,\u201d with its hours of endless scrolling.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m frustrated that an outlet meant for fun is being turned into a political weapon,\u201d said junior Genvieve.<\/p>\n

Other students interviewed for this story shared responses that ranged from indignation to indifference.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a really sad truth. I don\u2019t understand the point of banning TikTok when there are other identical social media apps still around,\u201d said Nikita, a sophomore. \u201cIt feels like the ban solves a whole lot of nothing.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are so many bigger issues in the world that the U.S. government could focus on, but of course, of all issues, they choose to ban TikTok. This just shows that if the government wants to solve a problem, they will. We need this approach with so many other national concerns, too,\u201d noted Justin, a freshman.<\/p>\n

Then there\u2019s this. \u201cIt honestly doesn\u2019t matter. I don\u2019t care. I\u2019ll just go on Instagram reels instead,\u201d Luke, a rising junior, said.<\/p>\n

Yes, the responses are all over the place, kind of like the platform itself. But as a student journalist, I can\u2019t help but view the proposed ban through the lens of America\u2019s standoff with China. This isn\u2019t about protecting our privacy so much as it is about exerting pressure on Beijing at our expense.<\/p>\n

TikTok\u2019s meteoric rise and its Chinese ownership by ByteDance have made it an easy target in the growing economic and technological rivalry between the world\u2019s two superpowers. It\u2019s a strategic move, a way for the U.S. to hit back at China\u2019s growing influence in the tech world.<\/p>\n

By framing the ban as a matter of national security \u2014 even without hard evidence that TikTok\u2019s owners are passing user data onto Beijing \u2014 the U.S. government can rally public support and divert attention from the underlying political maneuvering. It\u2019s a convenient pretext, masking a broader agenda aimed at curbing China\u2019s technological advancements and maintaining U.S. dominance.<\/p>\n

And in this case, that dominance comes at the cost of curbing our rights as Americans under the First Amendment, which guarantees our right to speak, publish, and access information without undue government interference. By banning TikTok, the government is overstepping its bounds and encroaching on these essential freedoms.<\/p>\n

It is also striking at the core of my generation\u2019s political engagement.<\/p>\n

\u201cCongress has chosen to ban an app that has been one of the most powerful platforms for youth organizing,\u201d Aidan Kohn-Murphy, founder of the organization Gen-Z for change,\u00a0told Al Jazeera<\/a>, referring to the app\u2019s immense popularity with the younger generation.<\/p>\n

According to a 2022 report by Measure Protocol, members of Gen-Z spend an average of 12.4 hours per week on the platform, which has become a vital tool for organizers like Kohn-Murphy.<\/p>\n

Others argue the platform\u2019s role in exposing American youth to the violence in Gaza and to pro-Palestinian content is\u00a0adding more fuel<\/a>\u00a0for those pushing the ban.<\/p>\n

But in a true democracy, diverse voices and opinions must be allowed to flourish, even if they are hosted on platforms owned by foreign entities. Suppressing these voices under the guise of national security weakens the foundation of our free society, creating a domino effect that threatens other platforms or media more generally with similar restrictions, further limiting our free speech.<\/p>\n

For its part, TikTok, along with several content creators, is suing the federal government over the ban on the grounds that forcing a sale of the platform would violate First Amendment rights. \u201cRest assured, we aren\u2019t going anywhere,\u201d TikTok\u2019s Chief Executive\u00a0Shou Zi Chew\u00a0told users in a recorded video message shortly after the ban was announced.<\/p>\n

Then, as recently as last week, former president and current GOP candidate Donald Trump joined the platform and told reporters he would \u201cnever ban TikTok.\u201d The move puts the ball back in Biden\u2019s court.<\/p>\n

His backing of Israel in its war on Gaza has already cost him support among young people as seen in the ongoing college protests. With polls showing a tight race in November, Biden can ill afford to alienate young voters further.<\/p>\n

Banning TikTok would do just that.<\/p>\n

Jeannine Chiang is an aspiring journalist and a rising senior at Burlingame High School in Burlingame, California where she is a reporter for the school paper, The Burlingame B.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

ByJeannine Chiang Jun 11, 2024 For...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-65270","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-opinion","category-u-s-a"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65270","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=65270"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65270\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":65271,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65270\/revisions\/65271"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=65270"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=65270"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=65270"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}