University Debate Initiative: Should the U.S. Ban TikTok?

Description

TikTok boasts more than a billion users worldwide; the platform has launched the careers of countless content creators and become a ubiquitous platform across the U.S.—in fact, a recent Pew Research study shows that 26% of U.S. adults under the age of the 30 get their news from TikTok. And, despite the fact that political ads have not been accepted on the platform since 2019, there is rising interest in the platform's ability to influence and shape political and cultural positions, especially among young people. Furthermore, like many social media platforms, TikTok seems unwilling or unable to flag and remove misinformation—political or otherwise.

While these concerns are shared across many social media platforms, unlike Facebook/Meta and X (previously known as Twitter), TikTok is owned by the Chinese company Byte Dance, which many lawmakers in the U.S. argue makes it especially dangerous—leaving users vulnerable to Chinese propaganda and their data being captured or mined by the Chinese government. Those in favor of a ban argue these risks pose a legitimate national security threat as well as general risks to personal security and privacy. These concerns have led to over half of the states and the federal government banning TikTok from all government devices.

Many opposed to bans, however, argue that these concerns are overblown, with charges to ban the app being led by out-of-touch lawmakers who don't understand data-privacy issues and the tech sector more broadly. They also argue that these efforts present a government overreach that would impair free speech and set a troubling precedent.

Bearing all this in mind: Should the U.S. ban TikTok?

That is the question that Johns Hopkins students and the public will be invited to explore at an upcoming debate featuring Daniel Lyons, the associate dean of Academic Affairs and professor at Boston College Law and non-resident senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, and Anton Dahbura, the executive director of the Johns Hopkins Information Security Institute and co-director of the Johns Hopkins Institute for Assured Autonomy. Lyons is a legal and tech policy expert who has testified before Congress and state legislatures and has participated in numerous proceedings at the Federal Communications Commission. Dahbura is a tech and security expert.

This event is being hosted in partnership with the Johns Hopkins University's Technology and Policy Society.