Will TikTok be Banned in Scotland?

I’ve got a confession to make: I’m not on TikTok anymore.

 

It's not like quitting was easy. For all its faults, TikTok has inarguably perfected the attention maximising algorithm. Open the app and you’re immediately presented with a new video from a trove of unlimited content which, with a slight flick of the thumb, is easily changed for something entirely different (but still acutely relevant to your likes, follows, and retention time on previous videos). Like a fever dream, using TikTok puts you in a kind of stimulation overload, flashing you with an abundance of imagery that reflects your deepest insecurities and desires, to the point where, like a dream, you can’t even remember where you started.

 

This sort of algorithm, putting it bluntly, is decimating our ability to focus and retain information. Blether have previously reported on short-form media and how the instant gratification that TikTok provides has fractured mental health and diminished our collective ability to concentrate. Campaigners have been demanding stronger regulation for social media companies which seek to absorb every morsel of our attention, and they may just have gotten what they wanted when the US Government stepped in to end TikTok’s prevalence in the US. The thing is, it was for entirely different reasons.

 

Last week, President Joe Biden signed the ‘Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act’. The law essentially gives TikTok parent company, ByteDance, a year to sell the platform to an American company or face a nationwide ban on all American devices. With TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, firmly stating they would prefer a ban than sell the app it seems that TikTok may soon be gone from American phones.

 

There have been criticisms. Most infamously, when TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew testified before the US congress, we witnessed some horrifically cringy moments from bumbling US politicians. One stand-out moment was when a Senator was unable to wrap their mind around Chew’s nationality being Sinaporian, not Chinese. Thankfully, no politician was crazy or technologically illiterate to ask something like “is Tiktok stealing our wifi?” except, I’m totally kidding, a Republican representative did actually ask that.

 

Many critics of this ban consider it an attempt by the US to further dominate the media landscape and stifle online political discourse.

 

But national security concerns haven’t come from nowhere. ByteDance’s preference for an outright ban over selling the platform for what would assuredly be billions certainly raised eyebrows. Chinese firms like ByteDance have an obligation to follow Chinese national security laws, including the aiding of Government intelligence gathering. TikTok, a massive social media network with monumental influence and access to user data, could potentially expose users to a government that is increasingly at odds with the western world. The app has already been banned on Government devices in the US, UK, and EU.

 

An EU citizen ban, however, doesn’t look like a real possibility. Although President of the EU Commission Ursula von der Leyen said the concept of a TikTok ban was “not excluded” from Parliamentary considerations, it seems unlikely that the EU will ban the app. The EU’s greater concerns lie with TikTok’s addictive algorithm, as they seek greater legislation to control declining literacy rates among kids and teens.

 

So, is the UK going to ban TikTok? Although there has been growing pressure from MPs demanding a ban on the basis of national security and disinformation, Government spokespeople seem fairly adamant the app is here to stay. As TikTok and other social media algorithms continue to negatively affect the nation’s cognitive abilities, we could potentially witness some form of Government intervention in the future. What that would look like, only time will tell.