Sign the petition to say: DO NOT ban TikTok!
Dear MoveOn member,
Among all of the pressing issues impacting people across the country, the House of Representatives decided to waste taxpayer dollars by passing an unconstitutional bill to ban the social media app TikTok. This latest stunt is not only a waste of time, it would violate and limit the free speech of the over 150 million Americans who use the app.1
After members of Congress in the House of Representatives voted to pass the ban on TikTok it was revealed that some of those who voted for the TikTok ban may own $29 million to $126 million worth of stock in TikTok’s competitors like Amazon, Google, Meta, Microsoft, and Snapchat.2 This means that many of the same politicians who voted for a TikTok ban would financially benefit from it. It’s unacceptable.
Will you add your name to the petition to say DO NOT ban TikTok?
If lawmakers want to address real concerns about Big Tech companies and data security, they need to make those laws instead of banning individual apps. Congress could pass strong privacy and antitrust laws instead of wasting their energy AND taxpayer money doing something no regular working person wants or needs.
Members of Congress are claiming that banning TikTok is an issue of national security and data privacy, meanwhile little has been done to pass a comprehensive data law that protects us from all social media companies.
In 2018, it was revealed that a data analytics firm that worked with Donald Trump’s election team harvested 50 million Facebook profiles of American voters. This was one of Facebook’s biggest data breaches ever, and the data was used to build a software program that influenced the 2016 election by targeting them with political advertisements.3
The truth is, data privacy is a huge issue. Companies track our data, our conversations, the things we view on social media platforms and use it to target us, and then sell our information to third parties all the time.4 But this isn’t just a TikTok issue. It’s a Big Tech issue. And just banning TikTok won’t fix it. Only passing strong national privacy legislation will truly protect us and our data, not banning individual apps. And together, we can demand it.
And while some politicians have a financial incentive to pass a TikTok ban, small businesses–and the people who run them–would take a major hit. Over 5 million small businesses have TikTok accounts and TikTok generated $14.7 BILLION in revenue just last year which created over 224,000 U.S. jobs.5,6
Suddenly banning TikTok and taking away that source of income could be financially devastating for millions of people across the country. We can't let that happen.
Will you sign the petition to demand that TikTok NOT be banned?
There are plenty of issues that are front of mind for Americans across the country today. Our bodily autonomy is under attack, from attacks on abortion care to attacks on IVF to attacks on gender-affirming care. LGBTQ+ youth are under attack. Systemic racism is harming Black, Indigenous, and brown people. There are millions of Americans who either have no healthcare or are underinsured. Americans are being crushed by over a trillion dollars in student debt. Rent prices are soaring and higher than ever while the federal minimum wage hasn’t gone up from $7.25 in 15 years. We are still in a pandemic. Communities still don’t have access to clean water. Climate change due to fossil fuels is destroying our communities.
Instead of focusing on what everyday Americans need most, Congress is wasting time passing a TikTok ban.
Thanks for all you do.
–Jensine, Nakia, Isbah, Sana, and the rest of the team
Sources:
1. "Banning TikTok is a Really Bad Idea," ACLU, May 11, 2023
https://act.moveon.org/go/188628?t=11&akid=379572%2E40999114%2Emb8SGw
2. "Politicians Who Voted to Ban TikTok May Own as Much as $126 Million in Tech Stocks," Gizmodo, March 22, 2024
https://act.moveon.org/go/188630?t=13&akid=379572%2E40999114%2Emb8SGw
3. "Revealed: 50 million Facebook profiles harvested for Cambridge Analytica in major data breach," The Guardian, March 17, 2018
https://act.moveon.org/go/36413?t=15&akid=379572%2E40999114%2Emb8SGw
4. "Opinion: Banning TikTok isn’t just a bad idea. It’s a dangerous one," CNN, April 16, 2023
https://act.moveon.org/go/188629?t=17&akid=379572%2E40999114%2Emb8SGw
5. "How A U.S. TikTok Ban Could Stomp Out 5 Million Small Businesses," Forbes, March 25, 2024
https://act.moveon.org/go/188631?t=19&akid=379572%2E40999114%2Emb8SGw
6. "Debunking 4 myths about TikTok," ABC News, March 15, 2024
https://act.moveon.org/go/188632?t=21&akid=379572%2E40999114%2Emb8SGw
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