TikTok Time in Congress, by Emmy Griffin

TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew gave his public plea to Congress yesterday in an attempt to forestall the forced ban/sale of the company in the U.S. The social media company has come to stand as a symbol for all the ills that social media is bringing to society. TikTok has the additional condition that its parent company, ByteDance, is based in Beijing, and there are significant indications — including Chew’s admission — that it’s collecting an extraordinary amount of biometric and other spy data for the Chinese Communist Party, as well as having an algorithm that actively seeks to promote images and material that are harmful.

Though TikTok is far from the only social media platform to denigrate society via its toxicity, it is by far the most popular with 150 million users in the U.S. Chew has taken to the app to speak directly to his American users in order to influence lawmakers in favor of the app, but he may already be too late (thank goodness). …

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