From The New Yorker Radio Hour: The TikTok Ban Is “Rooted in Hypocrisy” with Katie Drummond
Jun 6, 2024
auto_awesome
Katie Drummond, Global editorial director of Wired magazine, discusses the TikTok ban as a corporate crusade by Silicon Valley against a foreign competitor. She criticizes the ban as rooted in hypocrisy and refusal to regulate social media platforms equally. The podcast explores the impact of the ban on journalism, US government pressure on TikTok, and the political ramifications of the decision.
The TikTok ban is seen as a corporate move by Silicon Valley to suppress a foreign competitor with a superior product, rooted in hypocrisy.
The national security claim against TikTok is criticized for lacking concrete evidence and treating social media platforms unequally in regulation.
Deep dives
The TikTok Ban Debate
The podcast delves into the ongoing battle over the TikTok ban in the U.S. The ban, passed by Congress with bipartisan support and signed into law by President Biden, requires TikTok's owner, ByteDance, to sell the platform or face removal from app stores. This decision has sparked a lawsuit from ByteDance. Despite being used by 170 million Americans, concerns about national security and alleged Chinese influence drive the debate.
TikTok's Journalistic Impact
The episode highlights TikTok's role as a powerful tool for journalism, especially during events like the Russia-Ukraine conflict. Wired's editorial director, Katie Drummond, initially avoided TikTok but recognized its value when journalists used it to share on-the-ground dispatches, reaching over 250 million viewers. While TikTok offers accessible news formats, its limitation lies in depth and nuance compared to traditional journalism.
Political and Security Implications of the TikTok Ban
The ban's political implications, particularly among young voters who engage with TikTok, pose challenges for President Biden's administration. The podcast raises questions about transparency and motivations behind the ban, emphasizing the lack of concrete evidence to support the national security concerns raised. The debate also touches on the broader regulatory landscape for tech platforms and the complexities surrounding data privacy and security issues.
David Remnick talks with Katie Drummond, the global editorial director of Wired magazine, about the TikTok ban that just passed with bipartisan support in Washington. The app will be removed from distribution in U.S. app stores unless ByteDance, the Chinese company that owns TikTok, sells it to an approved buyer. TikTok is suing to block that law. Is this a battle among tech giants for dominance, or a real issue of national security? Drummond sees the ban as a corporate crusade by Silicon Valley to suppress a foreign competitor with a superior product. The claim that TikTok is a national-security threat she finds “a vast overreach that is rooted in hypotheticals and that is rooted in hypocrisy, and in … a fundamental refusal to look across the broad spectrum of social media platforms, and treat all of them from a regulatory point of view with the same level of care and precision.”