Pal: Politician efforts to ban TikTok is ‘political posturing.’

Last week, U.S. Senators Marco Rubio and Angus King introduced legislation to ban TikTok in the United States. The senators argue the move is in an effort to protect the American people from data breaches. 

In an interview with Forbes, University of Michigan associate professor Joyojeet Pal, an expert on the role of technology in democracy and labor, says the legislation is less about foreign infiltration, and more about the Chinese spy balloon.  

"This effort to ban TikTok shows that the lawmakers are interested in taking action against China, and this is entirely a reaction to the spy balloon," Pal says..

"This is really more of a political posturing move," Pal says. "Especially given what other platforms are also doing."

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Read “ANTI-SOCIAL CCP Act Would Ban TikTok In The United States” on Forbes. 

Learn more about associate professor of information Joyojeet Pal by visiting his UMSI faculty profile.