Should Singapore ban TikTok? Reddit users debate

SINGAPORE: After it was announced that one US state will be banning TikTok, a local Reddit user took a poll to ask whether Singapore should follow suit and disallow the unprecedentedly popular video app.

Commenters raised two issues: whether or not Singaporeans should be wary of protecting their data from Beijing, which is the reason why Montana Governor Greg Gianforte signed a bill on May 17 (Wednesday) banning TikTok in the state; and whether the app has a negative effect on children’s growth and development.

To protect Montanans’ personal and private data from the Chinese Communist Party, I have banned TikTok in Montana.

— Governor Greg Gianforte (@GovGianforte) May 17, 2023

The Montana bill bans TikTok from operating within its state lines and violators could face fines of as much as $10,000 per day.

In March, Mr Shou Zi Chew, the Chief Executive Officer of TikTok, was in the hot seat as he faced questions from US lawmakers at a congressional hearing over concerns of possible Chinese spying due to user data collected on the app.

Mr Chew, 40, born in Singapore and lives here with his wife and two children, has been the CEO of TikTok since 2021. Since he took leadership of TikTok, the app’s reach in the US has grown to 150 million users, particularly among teenagers and young adults.

Since the poll was put up on r/SingaporeRaw, around 1,200 Reddit users have voted.

So far, 46 per cent have said they are in favor of the ban and 53 per cent are against it.

Reddit users also stated their reasons why.

“SG should ban TikTok BC it’s gonna rot children’s brains with shortform content, not BC of ‘Red Scare 2.0’. Let’s not kid ourselves as if the USA-based companies (FB/Twitter, etc.) haven’t been stealing our data all along lol,” wrote one.

“Shortform content? It’s literally every social media at this point. So we should ban all of them? Good, go to north korea buddy,” opined another.

The post author, however, pointed out, “USA-based social media like Facebook and Instagram are also arguably rotting our children’s brain.”

“Tiktok is literally spyware, people have reported tiktok using almost 50 gigabytes of mobile data even after disabling mobile data for tiktok,” another vote.

A netizen wrote, “I feel like Tiktok has actually rotted my younger sibling (14) and cousins’ (16-19) brains. Their attention span isn’t enough for a book, news article or even a movie, and anything that they ‘learn’ on Tiktok is just a heavily condensed version of world news or whatever, lacking any and all nuance.”

/TISG

Singaporean-born TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew gets grilled by US Congress