Here is a link to the US Restrict Act (commonly known as the TikTok ban) as it is currently written.
Please read the actual bill and share even if you do not live in the United States. The precedents this piece of legislation would set would have far reaching impacts on how the internet is used for everyone in the future.
Text for S.686 - 118th Congress (2023-2024): RESTRICT Act
We've got a problem here. I know most people here probably hate tiktok, and for some good reasons, but believe it or not there's actually a good amount of good on tiktok too.
But this isn't about banning tiktok. That's just a cover for this, given power thanks to Meta (Facebook) lobbyists pretty much paying the United States Government.
For the tldr: This act, while saying it's to insure American's personal information will be safe from foreign powers, it goes much deeper than that.
It will give the United States Government the power to remove and ban ANY online service they deem "a security risk" while making it so they do not need just cause and do not need to clarify or release a public statement.
It allows them the power to gather American's data without our knowledge or consent and even force us to submit documentation for anything they wish.
It protects the government from scrutiny on this, and if you try to speak about it and inform people on what it ACTUALLY allows, they can claim it to be false information and charge you.
It prevents you from using a VPN as it's seen as a breach of information security, thus they can charge you.
Failure to abide by these "guidelines" can lead to a fine up to ONE MILLION DOLLARS and/or 20 YEARS in prison.
And above all it does NOTHING to prevent AMERICAN companies from collecting and selling your data.
And that's not even everything it does. This isn't about banning tiktok. It's about control, taking away our freedom of speech, censorship, and selfish monetary gain. This doesn't just affect tiktok users. This affects ALL Americans, small businesses, communities, and even those that use American online products, like Tumblr.
The US is turning into a fascist regime, where they are slowly but surely stripping away our rights and freedoms even more than they already have. And it terrifies me.
If you're not an American, please share this. We already have a hard enough time knowing what goes on with those in other countries. This could make it all the more difficult.
And if you are an American, share this, then contact your state representative and your state senators. Email, phone, even mailing a physical letter for crying out loud. You can search "who is my representative and senators?" on Google, bing, duck-duck-go, or whatever, and it'll take you to where you can find that out and even how to contact them.
Calmly and professionally tell them that not only do you NOT support the TikTok ban(since that is the cover they are using), but you DO NOT support the Restrict Act.
And let them know that if this bill is to pass, you will be spending all your time and energy supporting their opponents in the PRIMARIES. They do not expect Americans to contact them about this, so not only will they see us going out of our way to contact them, but by saying you'll be supporting their OPPONENTS, they'll have to either listen or have to spend thousands of not millions of dollars in campaigning so they don't lose their nice day paychecks, and to them this is all about money so it'll hit them where it hurts.
It doesn't matter what political party you're on, because BOTH parties in office want this. This is not about sides. This is about the ENTIRE government stripping our rights away so they can keep lining their own pockets.
And while we're at it? Review bomb anything related to meta it Facebook. Meta started all this because they couldn't compete with tiktok or buy it, so they paid lobbyists to convince congress to ban tiktok so they didn't HAVE to compete.
And here's the kicker... Many people of congress actually bought stock in Meta RIGHT BEFORE this all started. They are LITERALLY trying to manipulate the market for themselves. So let them burn.
