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News and Politics
Maryland’s Teachers Union COVID-19 Demands Will Increase Educational Inequality: When presented with the opportunity to avoid COVID-19 induced educational inequality, Maryland’s teachers’ union chose to fight to keep their members missing in action.
Sports
College Football Schedule-A-Go-Go: Navigating the new order in college football’s intra-conference schedules.
Video Killed The Radio Star: Back to the future of the MLB experience.
Culture
5 Movies That Cannot Be Remade: I mean, you could try I guess.
Coming Soon
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The Monday Thought
Let’s talk about TikTok.
It’s strange to think, but some of you might need to have TikTok explained to you. Wikipedia defines TikTok as “a video-sharing social networking service” that is “used to create short dance, lip-sync, comedy and talent videos.” Importantly, TikTok is owned by a Chinese company.
Chinese companies have a reputation for being arms of the Chinese government, making them de facto tools for information gathering and asymmetrical warfare for the Chinese government. The Chinese government, as you know, is a communist government, and one that looks to become a global superpower at or exceeding the levels of the United States.
Chinese history is fascinating, and Chinese political theory assumes that China is the center of the world. China, in the mind of Chinese leaders, likely is just trying to reassert itself as the leader of the world. That’s a place that China has really not been since the 1600’s. The fact that the Chinese government is communist in nature is, of course, as troubling.
TikTok has already been banned by almost every U.S. military department, the Department of Homeland Security, and many other government entities both in the U.S. and in the free world. It was even banned by the Biden campaign and was recommended by the Democratic National Committee to its organizations and staffers that they take additional care and additional security measures when using TikTok.
Why? Because the assumption has been made that TikTok is spying on its users on behalf of the Chinese government. And that is a major national security concern.
None of this was controversial politically until Friday, when President Donald Trump announced that he was requiring TikTok’s Chinese ownership to divest itself of TikTok for the app to keep operating in the U.S.
That’s when it became a giant political issue. Even though President Trump was doing the right thing by banning TikTok unless its Chinese ownership group divested themselves of it. Even though TikTok is a national security concern with its current ownership.
But some people are focusing on the age demographic of TikTok users. You see, for reason that I cannot understand, TikTok is wildly popular with teenagers. I don’t get it, but I’m not the target audience. But a lot of people are pushing the idea that Trump’s decision is going to force young voters when they come of age into the hands of the Democratic Party due to their love of and loyalty to TikTok.
To that I say: who cares if they do?
Too often in this administration, President Trump has made America weaker. He has coddled dictators such as Russia’s Vladimir Putin. He has let small rate nuclear enemies like North Korea walk all over him. He has hurt our status with our allies. He has negotiated with terrorists like the Taliban. Our national security, over all, is weaker since he has been in office.
None of that is true with banning TikTok, however. TikTok is spyware for the Chinese government. It poses a serious national security threat, and its use should be banned in the United States. And as somebody who believes heavily in free speech and free markets, I do not say that lightly. TikTok is a national security threat and should have been dealt with already.
Trump may not get much right, but banning spyware like TikTok is the right call. No matter what the perceived long-tail is.
President Trump has not "coddled" Russia and Putin, nor has he allowed NK to "walk all over him." Where on earth do you get your facts? Trump has been harder on Russia than any president in recent history, and his actions via NK stopped their belligerent behavior until very recently.
My argument against this... this feels like pure retribution for his Tulsa rally. He isnt banning any of the other apps that come from China, nor has any evidence been presented why this one is more harmful than those. To me, this is just another personal petty response. I understand what you mean about the threat and concern with China apps and phone companies but that isnt why this is happening.