Jim Geraghty:
A bipartisan Senate bill that will be introduced today aims to “give the president the authority to respond to threats posed by TikTok and companies like it.” A separate Senate bill, cosponsored by Maine independent senator Angus King and Florida Republican senator Marco Rubio, would ban the app outright; TikTok would be allowed to continue to operate if the company relocated or were sold to a friendly nation. Twenty states have banned TikTok from state-owned devices — mostly red states.
And yet, “At least 32 members of Congress — all Democrats and one independent — as of early January had TikTok accounts, according to a review by States Newsroom. . . . At least half either currently sit or have previously served on committees dealing with foreign affairs, the U.S. military, investigations and national security.” As of this morning, Vermont senator Bernie Sanders, New Jersey senator Cory Booker, Pennsylvania senator John Fetterman, Minnesota representative Ilhan Omar, Michigan representative Rashida Tlaib, and New York representative Jamaal Bowman still have Tik Tok accounts, among others. New York representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez appears to have pulled her content.
Way to go, members of Congress. This thing is too dangerous to carry into the Pentagon, but you’re keeping it on your personal phone because you’re afraid you might miss the latest dance craze that’s going viral. And if the last three years of our lives have taught us anything, hasn’t it been that anything that comes to us from China and “goes viral” probably isn’t good for us?
Back in 2021, the Wall Street Journal published a terrifying exposé about how its reporters logged into TikTok as underage users, and were gradually exposed to more and more sexual material, outright pornography, and drug-related content:
TikTok served one account registered as a 13-year-old at least 569 videos about drug use, references to cocaine and meth addiction, and promotional videos for online sales of drug products and paraphernalia. Hundreds of similar videos appeared in the feeds of the Journal’s other minor accounts.
TikTok also showed the Journal’s teenage users more than 100 videos from accounts recommending paid pornography sites and sex shops. Thousands of others were from creators who labeled their content as for adults only.
Still others encouraged eating disorders and glorified alcohol, including depictions of drinking and driving and of drinking games.
This led to strong suspicions that the TikTok algorithm aims to steer people toward salacious content, because the numbers indicate that keeps the user’s attention the longest. Oh, by the way, apparently the Chinese version of TikTok shows kids completely different material — wholesome, educational material. You can’t find the sex and drugs on the Chinese version.
