One need not be a fan of the platform to immediately see the Anti-TikTok bill as a boneheaded effort to rush a law into existence with little regard for public opinion, the interests of a vast ecosystem of micro-businesses, and the veracity of spurious claims about national security threats.
That's not to say that TikTok does not present serious privacy concerns due to the vast amounts of data it summarily collects on its growing base of quasi-addicted users, but the platform has shown that it is willing to bend over backwards - perhaps more so than any other social media app - to satisfy data localization, information protection and other due diligence requirements.
But this clumsy legislative effort has served one key purpose: to remind the U.S. of the urgent need for a national privacy law that consistently protects personal information and sets a solid baseline for the enforcement of privacy rights across all States.
Member discussion: