Podcast: Why banning TikTok would miss a privacy forest for "national security" trees

Good morning from sunny Washington, where I'm about to go pick up a repaired car after a month. Alex Howard here, with a new edition of Civic Texts. Happy Earth Day. I'm happy to report that my body also feels close to fixed as well, after a couple weeks of being shaken up and experiencing symptoms of whiplash. PHEW. Now I can get back to feeling out of shape, instead of feeling out of alignment.

Many thanks to all of you for subscribing, and a hearty welcome to all of the folks who signed up over the weekend – particularly the long-time subscribers to my Civic Texts service! I rebooted @CivicTexts and will be experimenting with cross-pollinated across email, social media, and the Web in 2024, in hopes that I can reach you where you are, in the ways you want – and that you can in turn reach me.

Today, I'm going to share a special, extended version of a conversation I had with a journalist about TikTok last month, which is back in the news after the U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill on Saturday that would force ByteDance to either sell TikTok or face a national ban.

Tucked inside of the text of H.R. 8038, which contains multiple priorities of the current House's leadership, is the PROTECTING AMERICANS FROM FOREIGN ADVERSARY CONTROLLED APPLICATIONS ACT.

This bill will now move on to the Senate for debate, where Senate Majority Leader said he'll take it up. If they move it, President Biden has said he would sign it.

As a result, the United States is now on the precipice of a historically significant step that will eviscerate the moral position of our nation to cry foul when authoritarian nations demand technology companies censor, block, or demand access. I favor enacting a strong data protection act that codifies baseline privacy rights over banning apps or forcing divestment.

I spoke with Malika Bilal about all this in March for Al Jazeera's "The Take," which you can listen to on-demand on Apple Podcasts. If you have 17 minutes to listen, tune in: you'll get sound journalism and professionally produced audio, weaving in context and insight from multiple parties.

If you have 48 minutes, you can listen to our full conversation, which I recorded locally. Fair warning: you'll get a lot of me talking about how the future of a free and open Internet relates to this decision, along with a lot of other topics, along with the (wonderfully patient) host nudging me to tighten up my answer at the end.

I hope these conversations are useful to you, as a step towards integrating more interactive media into this project. Part of my plan for CivicTexts is to experiment with video, Q&As, and podcasts, hopefully bringing in all of you to make everyone smarter. ("CivicVideo" doesn't have the same double meaning, sadly.)

I'm continuing to think through the best pace, frequency, and formats for these newsletter, so stay tuned! If you have suggestions, questions, comments, tips, or concerns, you can find me online as @digiphile across social media, or directly on email alex@governing.digital, which you can write to if you want to connect over Signal.

As always if you find these newsletters valuable, I hope you'll consider sharing them with your social networks, forwarding to colleagues, and upgrading to a paid subscription to support my work. Thank you for your continued support.