Today, we’re talking about the brand-new TikTok ban — and how years of Congressional inaction on a federal privacy law helped lead us to this moment of apparent national panic about algorithmic social media.

This is a thorny discussion, and to help break it all down, I invited Verge senior policy reporter Lauren Feiner on the show. Lauren has been closely covering efforts to ban TikTok for years now, and she’s also watched Congress fail to pass meaningful privacy regulation for even longer. We’ll go over how we got here, what this means for both TikTok and efforts to pass new privacy legislation, and what might happen next. 

Links: 

• Biden signs TikTok ‘ban’ bill into law — The Verge
• TikTok ban: all the news on attempts to ban the video platform — The Verge
• Anyone want to buy TikTok? — Vergecast
• Congress takes on TikTok, privacy, and AI — Vergecast
• Tiktok vows to fight 'unconstitutional' US ban — BBC
• ‘Thunder Run’: Behind lawmakers’ secretive push to pass the TikTok bill — NYT
• On TikTok, resignation and frustration after potential ban of app — NYT
• Lawmakers unveil new bipartisan digital privacy bill after years of impasse — The Verge
• A real privacy law? House lawmakers are optimistic this time — The Verge
• Congress is trying to stop discriminatory algorithms again — The Verge

Credits:

Decoder is a production of The Verge, and part of the Vox Media Podcast Network.

Today’s episode was produced by Kate Cox and Nick Statt and was edited by Callie Wright. Our supervising producer is Liam James.

The Decoder music is by Breakmaster Cylinder.

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