Can a ban on TikTok put our values at risk?

Do you ever wonder why Americans love the First Amendment so much? As a born American citizen I can recall multiple instances over my lifetime where someone debated what exactly our founding fathers meant by freedom of speech and why it is extremely unethical to even think about removing that right from us. Yet, I have heard very little on what our first Amendment offers our society in a value sense. It wasn't till we discussed the Eight Values of Free Expression that it dawned on me the real impact free speech has had on our society. With the upcoming bill to ban TikTok, a well known social media site, we put so many values at risk, but "6. Promote Tolerance" and "8. Protect Dissent" stood as dead set ringers for things we could lose because of this bill. But what are those values? What do they mean for the American people? Why does a ban on TikTok put those specific values at risk? 

Let's first discuss value six on our list, what does it mean by “promoting tolerance” within preserving free speech? By allowing differing opinions, by allowing certain aspects of people's personality, by introducing different cultures into our society you begin to create a more tolerant society. TikTok, like most social media platforms, introduced Americans to different sides of the world. With free speech we allow for the free flowing of ideas and arguments, of differing opinions, and thus help us promote tolerance for those we don’t tend to agree with. 

Post made by NYTimesTravels on March 6th, 2024.

Stepping away from TikTok and looking at other social media outlets such as Instagram, we can see yet another space which utilizes our free speech into promoting tolerance of ideas and culture. Accounts like @nytimestravel post about different cultures and practices and if we remove that safe space or the ability to access these accounts we lose the ability to acknowledge cultures outside of the United States. Then instead of enjoying or being able to acknowledge the differences we have with the world we become ignorant and intolerant to them. 

On the other hand, number eight on our list pertains to “protecting dissent”, to dissent simply means to differ in opinion, to protect that means to protect opinions differing from yours, yet why is that such a valuable aspect or trait of free speech? TikToker Dylan Mulvaney makes a good point of reference for this idea. She recently dropped her debut single “Days of Girlhood”, a pop song in which she discusses different ‘fun’ girl stereotypes. While Mulvaney believed she was just writing a song for fun, the internet, on the other hand, did not like the song as intended, causing a surge of angry TikToker's who came out against Mulvaney. It is within these criticisms of Mulvaney we begin to see criticism of the criticizers, thus demonstrating a dissent in opinion among the viewers. While the comments on videos ranged from couldn’t disagree more to agreeing wholeheartedly, this ability to disagree and criticize while still being able to respect the creator is what we risk losing. 

At the end of the day, we as a society have been accustomed to the ideas and freedoms we have always been provided. In free speech we acquire values without evening initial acknowledging them. Without free speech who knows how tolerant or understanding of others we would be.