Is TikTok’s Time Up? 5 Things You Can Do Now to Protect Yourself, Your Family, and Your Data
TikTok is the United State’s largest social media platform, with $150 million daily users, the majority of whom are teens and young adults.[1]
I am no fan of TikTok. Its algorithms push harmful content on our children, such as sex, drug use, eating disorders, and suicide. TikTok challenges have even resulted in deaths of children, including seven who died of strangulation while attempting the “blackout challenge.”[2]
The fact that the Chinese Communist Party (“CCP”) may have access to TikTok’s collection of user data, from our personal contacts to web activity to private messages, is also disturbing. However, this information is neither new nor unique to TikTok. Microsoft, an American company, aided and abetted the Chinese military,[3] and Facebook has admitted to sharing data with Chinese companies.[4]
Despite the Trump administration’s call for a TikTok ban in 2020, there is now an urgent bipartisan effort to ban TikTok for the very same reasons cited by Trump. What changed? Is this a way for politicians to appear to be “tough on China’’ to their constituents? To eliminate competition for Meta? Or to introduce totalitarianism? It sounds dramatic, but keep reading.
Yes, two weeks ago, we watched TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew testify before the House Energy and Commerce Committee (“Committee”) and give evasive and nonresponsive answers to Congress’s questions concerning TikTok’s Chinese parent company, ByteDance, and its access to TikTok user data. Questions followed about potential access to this information by the CCP, which Chew denied. When questioned about whether TikTok’s algorithm pushed harmful content on American youth, Chew took no responsibility, citing a “real industry challenge.”[5]
Nothing new came out of Chew’s testimony. House Speaker Kevin Mcarthy said it himself when he announced that the Committee would move forward with legislation to enforce a nationwide ban on TikTok: “It’s very concerning that the CEO of TikTok can’t be honest and admit what we already know to be true—China has access to TikTok user data.”[6]
While the timing, bipartisan consensus, and haste to act gives me pause, the congressional bills currently in the works really raise some red flags with me!
The RESTRICT Act,[7] introduced by U.S. Senators Warner and Thune, is troubling. The Biden administration supports the bill, calling it “a systematic framework for addressing technology-based threats to the security and safety of Americans.” Notably, the RESTRICT act does not even mention TikTok. Instead, this sweeping bill gives the executive branch of government (not Congress) the authority to regulate “certain transactions between persons in the United States and foreign adversaries.”[8] “Past, current, or potential future” transactions with foreign adversaries would include “any acquisition, importation, transfer, installation, dealing in or use of any information and communications technology, product, or service, including ongoing activities, such as mandated services, data transmission, software updates, repairs, or the provision of data hosting services.” Could the language be more broad?
If the Biden administration determines that an American citizen is engaging in such a “transaction, the Secretary of Commerce can enforce ‘any mitigation measures to address any risk,’ including a $1 million fine and a 20-year prison sentence.”
Would expressing your opinions on the Internet on any foreign adversary, such as Russia, subject you to the RESTRICT Act? Scary thought.
Yes, TikTok is a problem, but a bill like the RESTRICT Act, as currently drafted, is not the solution.
So, what can we do? Here are four actions you can take now:
1. The House Committee will introduce or adopt legislation imminently. The RESIST Act has been advanced in the Senate. You must exercise due diligence and scrutinize how these bills actually read. Be aware of sweeping language, sole discretion in the hands of the President and his administration, and First Amendment free speech implications. Both parties are behind this legislation, so you can’t go by party lines. Find your congressional representatives and express your concerns.
Find Your U.S. Representative Here
2. If you are like me and you believe that TikTok’s most dangerous threat is against our children through harmful content and ungodly ideologies, call for online safety laws that would apply to all platforms, including Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, by contacting your representative and senators at the above links.
3. No matter what happens in the legislature, take action to protect your family from the dangers of TikTok, starting with your children. I personally would not allow my children to have access to the app on their devices. If you do allow it, you must be diligent in monitoring it and all other social media. Perhaps limit use of social media to a computer or device shared with you and/or within an open living space like the kitchen or family room.
4. Ask yourself whether the benefits of using TikTok (and all social media really) outweigh the risk of sharing your data with companies, foreign countries, and regimes like the CCP. I know that you may make a living on social media, and may even use it as a tool to share the Gospel. Ask the Holy Spirit to guide you.
5. Pray that God will raise up Kingdom men and women to create successful social media platforms and tech companies that surpass all others, including Meta, TikTok, Twitter, and Microsoft.
We know that TikTok is a huge threat to our culture, but the solution must solve the problem without undermining our fundamental values. Let’s be “shrewd as snakes and as innocent as doves”[9] when it comes to defending our children and national sovereignty.
To take a deep dive into how TikTok, Meta, and other tech companies are exploiting our children and personal data for profit and what we can do about it, check out my book Fight Like Heaven! A Cultural Guide to Living on Guard.
Need a quicker read? Check out A Call to Arms: Your Quick Start to Fight Like Heaven! You will find a brief teaching on the seven mountains of influence, specific instructions for spiritual warfare and intercession over these areas, and recommendations for personal strategies to impact these spheres for the Kingdom of God. When you purchase a bundle, A Call to Arms is perfect to use as an evangelism tool and/or study with your small group.
Also, be sure to SUBSCRIBE to my YouTube channel, Drenda on Guard, where you will hear the uncensored truth and a Kingdom perspective on news and current events that affect you.
[1] Tammy Webber, “Tiktok Ceo Shou Zi Chew: 3 Things to Know,”
https://apnews.com/article/tiktok-ban-shou-zi-chew-testify-7927b1915db270aac67ca6f4ca31d6f3, March 23, 2023.
[2] Mitchell Clark,“The Tiktok ‘Blackout Challenge’ Has Now Allegedly Killed Seven Kids,”
https://www.theverge.com/2022/7/7/23199058/tiktok-lawsuits-blackout-challenge-children-death, July 7, 2022.
[3] Allum Bokhari, “Red-Handed: Microsoft Created Research Lab to Work on Artificial Intelligence For Chinese Military,” http:// www.breitbart.com, March 3, 2022.
[4] David Shepherdson, “Facebook Confirms Data Sharing with Chinese Companies,”
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-facebook-privacy-congress-idUSKCN1J11TY, June 5, 2018.
[5] “Tiktok Ceo Testifies on Capitol Hill as App Faces Possible Ban,”
https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/other/tiktok-ceo-testimony-on-capitol-hill-updates-app-faces-possible-ban/ar-AA18Z9pO, March 23, 2023.
[6]https://twitter.com/SpeakerMcCarthy/status/1639980623539445760?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1639980623539445760%7Ctwgr%5E7388062f1d41e461498f43ba89c1d85b62be6b7f%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.dailywire.com%2Fnews%2Flawmakers-to-advance-tiktok-bill-us-house-speaker-says
[7] Restricting the Emergence of Security Threats that Risk Information and Communications Technology Act, S.686—118th Congress (2023-2024).
[8] https://www.congress.gov/bill/118th-congress/senate-bill/686/text?s=1&r=15
[9] Matthew 10:16 (NIV)
