The Hypocrisy Behind the TikTok Ban

In April 2024, U.S. President Joe Biden signed into law the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act, which effectively bans or forces the sale of TikTok from its parent company, ByteDance. In simple words, the President of the U.S. has signed a bill saying: either sell TikTok to an American company or get banned.

This step was taken due to multiple reports of TikTok actively spying on people—the same reason it was banned in India. That seems to be the correct step to take in this matter.

But why only TikTok? Why not Meta or Facebook? Oh, but wait—those are companies owned by private, American-based groups that contribute so much to the economy and donate money to the government.

Ahh, capitalism.

Hey, let’s play a game. Tell me, what’s the most American thing? Is it:

A) Burgers B) Alcohol C) Obesity D) Spying on people using underwater internet cables and paying the UK to spy on Americans due to a legal loophole E) Hypocrisy F) Both D and E?

The correct answer would be F.

Yes, after the 9/11 attack, the NSA—the National Security Agency—has been actively spying on people by tapping into underwater internet cables and paying the UK. In America, it is illegal to spy on U.S. citizens, which is also the case in many other countries. But the NSA is a U.S. government agency, and it has to respect U.S. laws—but not the laws of other countries.

It is very astonishing, considering that America is “a country built upon the ideas of justice, equality…”.

The founding fathers of the USA—the same people who preached that “all men are created equal”—were a bunch of slave owners.

So, I guess everybody has equal rights—except Asians, Hispanics, Jews, Blacks, Native Americans, Arabs, women, and anyone who is not a straight white man.

If Russia makes bioweapons, it’s bad. But if the USA does it? Well, then they’re the protectors of freedom and democracy.

It is okay for the USA to ban TikTok to protect their country from outside interference. But if the Indian government were to ban Facebook or Meta, we are the monsters. We are the threat to free speech. We are the backwards people.

We are the oppressors—not you, America. Not you.