French politicians threaten with TikTok ban
Adults whining about the behavior of ‘the youth’. In the first century AD, Horace complained about the generation after him. Although the Roman poet could also be self-aware, he was not averse to some groundless judgment. “The beardless young man… lavish with money, he passionately longs for the higher, but quickly abandons his sweetheart.” Every generation experiences it, so you would expect people to learn from it, but no. It is the youth who are wrong. They’re just too much into those bloody phones!
Also concerns about national security
It is a sermon that can be heard from the pulpit all over the world. TikTok is a threat to national security. In France, politicians are now calling on the company to take action within six months. This should allay fears regarding national security. They also call on ByteDance to combat excessive use of the app among young people.
If TikTok does not or insufficiently respond to that call, there is a threat of a ban on the app. The demands come after a report on the app’s impact on French society. The French government itself does not have the power to impose such a ban. The politicians therefore want to go to The Hague when their wishes are not fulfilled.
ByteDance has been asked to clarify the personal data that the company stores and who has access to that data. In fact, ByteDance is a private company. But the reality in China is decidedly different. Without substantial government interference, there is simply no business in the country. Asking ByteDance for clarification is therefore pointless. Technically, the Chinese government has no business on the company’s servers, and it will invariably claim so. Despite the fact that it has never been proven in this specific case, it is inevitable that ByteDance is leading the party line.
Apps like TikTok exacerbate riots
But that’s not the whole story. One of the French politicians even calls TikTok “not an economic, but a political enterprise.” Colleagues express their concerns about the role that apps like TikTok play in the riots that recently ravaged France. After French police shot dead a teenager in Nanterre, a town in the western banlieue of Paris. The boy was shot at close range after he tried to drive on after being stopped.
The images went from what we will describe as the fatal shot for the time being, went over TikTok at lightning speed. This will undoubtedly have fueled the fire of the protests. The question seems to me whether TikTok is the problem in this case, or whether we are dealing with legitimate resistance to unauthorized police brutality. The French government has now decided to set up a working group that will examine which measures are desirable to limit incitement to violence on social media.
It seems striking to me to focus on curtailing such messages before the investigation into the agent’s actions has been completed. It gives the impression that French politicians have already come to a conclusion: we are not wrong, it is the young people who are wrong. Instead of acknowledging legitimate grievances and ensuring a safe living environment for the newer generations, strange behaviors for the elderly are pointed out as the culprit. Fortunately grunt Horace also had something to say about such behavior: “Our fathers’ times were worse than our grandfathers. We, their sons, are more worthless than they, and so shall we provide the world with an even more corrupt offspring.” In any case, it puts the responsibility in the right place.
