Last week, a federal appeals court ruled that the TikTok ban passed by Congress should stand. But on behalf of our coalition of racial and social justice coalitions, our message in the court of public opinion is clear — it’s time for the TikTok ban to go, full stop.
In late June, our organizations — and others in a diverse coalition of nonprofits representing Latine, AAPI, Muslim, Native American, Sikh and South Asian American communities — filed a “friend of the court” amicus curiae brief in the lawsuit against the TikTok ban, a congressional bill that threatens to effectively ban TikTok in the United States.
Why did we speak up about this ban? One reason is because it hurts our ability as nonprofits to reach America’s marginalized communities, whose perspectives are often omitted from traditional media. One of our organizations — the Muslim Public Affairs Council — works to increase understanding and improve policies that impact Muslim Americans, so that our community is seen, heard and understood from Washington to Hollywood.
TikTok is unquestionably one of our most powerful tools. It democratizes social media and provides avenues for the incredibly diverse Muslim American community across the United States to engage with the broader American public in ways that other social media platforms simply can’t.
The reality is that so many young folks — racial and religious minorities, other marginalized persons of every color and stripe — have found a home online on TikTok. It’s become a unique forum for diverse individuals to express themselves, educate themselves about “taboo” issues, advocate for causes — and for some, to make a living. And that’s why this ban is so unpopular with young Americans, particularly racial minorities.
Indeed, one recent survey of young American voters of color found that they wanted the president to find a compromise that allows TikTok to continue operating by a full 42% margin. Why isn’t our government listening?
The other big problem is that (as this court case has shown) the TikTok ban and the Department of Justice’s secretive approach whipping up fears around national security doesn’t actually protect us. According to the bill’s backers, TikTok supposedly is transmitting all sorts of user data to the Chinese government.
But in the court record, the DOJ itself admitted that U.S. intelligence has “no information” that China has ever used TikTok to engage in “foreign influence targeting U.S. persons, and collection of sensitive data of U.S. persons.” So we’re talking about singling out one app and silencing tens of millions of American users, because of a hypothetical threat to national security?
This sounds like fearmongering, plain and simple — and the federal government has a terrible record when it comes to fearmongering around “national security.” Hypothetical threats to national security led to thousands of Japanese Americans forced into internment camps during World War II.
In the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks, we saw President George W. Bush’s National Security Entry-Exit Registration System program use “national security” to target tens of thousands of Muslim and South Asian immigrants for deportation, and Congress trying to introduce bills such as the “Jihad Prevention Act” and the “Foreign Law Ban” into law. The long-term impact was that Muslim communities were deeply victimized, with the implication that Muslim Americans — as well as South Asians such as Sikhs and Hindus — weren’t loyal Americans.
One of our organizations, the South Asian Legal Defense Fund, was founded to stop this very kind of targeting. In this case, it will be Chinese and Asian Americans who will pay the price for this fearmongering — communities who’ve already seen a huge spike in anti-China sentiment and hate crimes.
The platform isn’t perfect — we’ve dealt with hate, misinformation and online bullying on TikTok. But it’s no better or worse in that regard than Facebook, Google or other platforms. So if TikTok is banned, where will our young folks go? How will we reach them at a time when 40% of young Americans are getting their news from TikTok? It’s not going to be on Facebook or Instagram.
The TikTok ban was jammed through Congress in record time and passed because of cheap politics. Regardless of this court’s decision, it’s time for our electeds in Washington to listen to young Americans and put the senseless TikTok ban in its place — in the dustbin of history, where it belongs.
Hussain is a senior advisor for the Muslim Public Affairs Council. Parikh is the executive director of the South Asian Legal Defense Fund.
