TikTok Users Gather At The US Capitol To Protest Against Proposed Ban

A number of TikTok content producers gathered at the US Capitol to voice their opposition to calls for the app’s outright banningTikTok is a Chinese video-sharing platform. Early on Thursday, a group of about a dozen youths, teachers, and business owners protested before Congress to voice their opposition to a possible ban on TikTok and to highlight the advantages of the app for their careers, according to a report by the news agency AFP.

A potential TikTok ban caused some issues for an aspiring soapmaker who goes by the username @countrylather2020. She said that the app was kind of where she built her business and that the ban would be problematic.

“Are there other platforms out there? Absolutely — I’m on them. But none of them have the reach that TikTok has,” she said.

Jason Linton, a different TikTok maker who has engaged with users all across the world and shares videos of his three adopted children, opposed the restriction. During a press conference on Wednesday, Linton pleaded with our leaders not to destroy the community that we had all worked so hard to create.

Three politicians from the Democratic Party are also criticizing the restriction in addition to content creators. According to lawmaker Mark Pocan, he said that a “xenophobic witch hunt” was motivating some in Congress to seek a ban, a report by the news agency Reuters said. “Banning TikTok isn’t the answer. Making sure Americans’ data is safe is,” Pocan added.

Also read: Tiktok-Updates-Its-Content-Rules-As-Pressure-From-The-West-Increases

Democratic leader and senator Ed Markey stated on the Senate floor on Wednesday that while TikTok posed a problem that needed to be addressed, it wasn’t the only threat to young people’s privacy from surveillance.

American politicians and government representatives have demanded that TikTok be taken off app stores unless it is acquired by a US corporation after alleging that ByteDance, the platform’s parent company, can provide the Chinese government access to user data.

Shou Zi Chew, the CEO of TikTok, will testify before the House Energy and Commerce Committee later on Thursday and answer inquiries from lawmakers who want to outlaw the app. Tuesday, Chew reported that nearly half of all US internet users use TikTok, which has more than 150 million active monthly users.