Open Letter
Dear Editor,
My name is Luke Reeves, I am 17 years old and I wanted to message this news outlet and express my opinion. First I will state I am biased as I use TikTok on a regular basis and that I have not looked over every detail of the case. All I know is what I have heard which has allowed me to form a very broad opinion, but I still want to attempt to give my thoughts on the issue.
In my opinion this bill is driven not by true fear that we are controlled, but by something else. I want to preface, I couldn’t care less if TikTok was banned. I’m very apathetic towards the whole situation. If it gets banned, whomp whomp. I lose a source of entertainment. I have others. If it doesn’t get banned my life doesn’t change. But the length that people in the government are going to in order to force a non-US company to sell to the USA makes me question their motivation. I’ve heard that TikTok is collecting user data and influencing elections . . . and this is new? There is not a social media site that I’m aware of that doesn’t actively collect and sell user data. The same goes with influencing elections. News Stations, Facebook, instagram, and even newspapers have been vital to swinging the votes of voters every election cycle, so why is TikTok any different? It’s owned by an opposing government is the biggest complaint I’ve heard. Yet in the clips I’ve seen of the trial for this bill the people representing TikTok have nothing but detailed, exact, and compliant, whereas our officials asked railroading questions with clear intentions. Again these are clips so there may have been context I missed, but the fact is they were still asked. So if TikTok is forced to sell to American company’s and it’s as dangerous as the government says it is it leaves me with one question. What will our government do with the same app? Will they change anything or do the same as what they accused others of? Just a thought. Thank you for your time.
Luke Reeves
Irmo
