Let’s look at both arguments and then you pick a side.

The case for banning TikTok: The past decade taught us the incredible power of social media, from the data it collects on users to the information it pushes out to them. We also know foreign actors have leveraged social media to interfere with an election.

TikTok plays on both those fears. Not only is it a massively popular app that users seem to lose track of time on. Its parent company is based in Beijing, the capital of a country the US is not on the best terms with.

With young people turning to TikTok for news — and China reportedly trying to influence US elections — you start to see where the concerns are coming from. (One legal expert told BI the law had a 70% chance of surviving a legal challenge.)

The case against banning TikTok: To borrow (and alter) a famous movie line, “Show me the evidence!”

We can talk until we’re blue in the face about the Chinese Communist Party potentially forcing ByteDance to share TikTok’s US user data or influence operations on its behalf. But the US government hasn’t provided evidence that’s happening. And TikTok maintains its data is safe and separate from outside influence.

Meanwhile, TikTok has helped plenty of users earn money and launch full-blown careers seemingly overnight.

And who’s to say this stops with TikTok?

The threat of foreign influence might make the TikTok ban easier to swallow. But what happens the next time the government wants to exert some control over social media?

Regulators haven’t been shy about going after Big Tech. A successful TikTok ban could open the door for more aggressive actions against others in tech.

So, which side do you fall on?