By Steven V. Roberts

With hefty bipartisan backing, the House has passed a bill that would force TikTok — the wildly popular Chinese-owned social media app — to sell out or face a ban. Normally, a measure that commands that kind of support makes sense. This one does not, and it should die in the Senate.

The measure reflects an overreaction against unproven allegations, and it clearly violates the First Amendment guarantee of free speech. Rep. Mike Gallagher, the Wisconsin Republican who sponsored the bill, justifies it by saying, “TikTok is digital fentanyl addicting our kids.” 

But he should read the Constitution. That document protects speech that is unpopular, obnoxious — even subversive.

“We’re deeply disappointed that our leaders are once again attempting to trade our First Amendment rights for cheap political points during an election year,” says Jenna Leventoff, senior policy counsel at the American Civil Liberties Union. “Just because the bill sponsors claim that banning TikTok isn’t about suppressing speech, there’s no denying that it would do just that.”

Her view has already been endorsed by three federal judges. After Montana voted to ban TikTok, District Judge Donald Molloy blocked the measure last November and wrote that the law “oversteps state power and infringes on the Constitutional right of users and businesses (and) likely violates the First Amendment.”

Back in 2020, after President Trump tried to ban TikTok through an executive order, he was thwarted by Judge Carl Nichols — a Trump appointee — who derided the action as “arbitrary and capricious.”

Another federal judge, Wendy Beetlestone, ruled in favor of TikTok influencers who had challenged the ban. “Without access to the TikTok app, Plaintiffs would lose access to all of these followers, as well as to the professional opportunities afforded by TikTok,” Beetlestone wrote.

As these judges indicate, preserving TikTok is not just a free speech issue. The app — which is used by about 170 million Americans — is a major economic and cultural force. 

“TikTok has cultivated a culture and community that no other platform has come close to replicating,” Kate Lindsay writes in The Atlantic. “There’s a speed to how TikTok facilitates conversations and trends, and its algorithm is unnervingly good at picking up on a user’s interests and showing them what they want to see.”

“TikTok is where a lot of young people have found their community, their voice, their income,” adds Angela Watercutter in Wired. “Eradicating TikTok … rips up a piece of the social fabric.”

It would also rip up an important source of political information. According to a Pew survey, 14 percent of Americans now get their news from TikTok, but that rises to one-third of voters under 30. That’s why President Biden has decided to play the hypocrisy card, vowing to sign the TikTok ban if it reaches his desk while aggressively using the platform to spread his campaign message.

The president’s reelection campaign has started a TikTok account, @BidenHQ, which now has a quarter of a million followers. His team has been posting messages from Biden, using an informal and occasionally humorous style, while also inviting TikTok influencers to the White House for policy briefings and political pep talks. 

Cameron Joseph, writing in the Columbia Journalism Review, notes that since Russia clearly meddled in the 2016 election, Americans should be wary of any attempt by China to disrupt the fall campaign using TikTok. 

“But that doesn’t change the reality of 2024 politics,” he wrote. “Biden needs to win back young voters. They’re on TikTok. And unless and until that platform goes away, Democrats need to be where the voters are.”

China is clearly America’s enemy — economically, militarily, even morally — and supporters of the TikTok ban have played on those fears to advance their legislation. But the specific arguments against TikTok remain largely undocumented.

One is that Beijing could somehow use TikTok to harvest intelligence data that compromises national security or to spread destabilizing misinformation. However, writes CNN: “So far, the U.S. government has not publicly presented any evidence the Chinese government has accessed TikTok user data.”

Lawmakers stressed that TikTok is owned by a Chinese company, ByteDance, and perhaps even controlled by the Chinese Communist Party. But as the Washington Post reports, 60 percent of ByteDance is actually owned by foreign investors, including many Americans. 

TikTok today is a vital part of this country’s social fabric, commercial culture and political debate. Trying to ban it is both foolish and futile.

Steven Roberts teaches politics and journalism at George Washington University. He can be contacted by email at stevecokie@gmail.com.