By: Kathleen Guo

Hello,

I am writing about your opinionated piece you published on August 18, titled A TikTok Ban Is Overdue. You proposed that the ban of Tik Tok was needed and the action taken against it was “overdue”. You stated about how “Trump might prefer an American internet designed to serve his propaganda needs,” and “ a better approach would be for more of the world to isolate China in concert.”

The United States had restricted very little from the world wide web on their browser and internet. You mention that “From China’s perspective, the [fact that few foreign companies are allowed to reach Chinese citizens with ideas or services, but the world is fully open to China’s online companies] has been a bonanza that has served economic as well as political goals…European nations overrun by American tech companies must be jealous of the thriving tech industry that China has built in the absence of serious foreign competition.” You’ve implied that, if China refuses to follow the rules of the open internet, why continue to give it access to internet markets around the world? But Tik Tok, here in the United States, have also helped various groups of people. It’s a huge social platform that has improved the lives of many and thrown others under the spotlight of publicity. Some even took it as a career.

By removing Tik Tok, you’ve removed a way teenagers can express themselves and show their talents to other people using the platform. The United States had scarcely blocked any digital media coming from outside, why start with one of the most widely used and popular ones in the current age?

[SOURCES]