Snap CEO Evan Spiegel was on hand during the company’s recent partner summit. During the event, he sat down with journalist Kara Swisher for a conversation about the company and other related issues. As their conversation unfolded, Swisher asked Spiegel about the possibility of TikTok being banned in the United States.
“We’d love that,” Spiegel said as the crowd cheered.
Diving a bit deeper into the matter, Spiegel also explored the potential repercussions of a ban. More specifically, he wondered what precedent banning an app would set for others like Snap, Twitter, Meta, etc.
“It is important for us to be thoughtful and really develop a regulatory framework to deal with security concerns, especially around technology,” Spiegel said about the security concerns regarding TikTk that others have expressed.
“I think based on the information that is publicly available, there are legitimate national security concerns far above my pay grade.”
The idea of banning TikTok has taken off within social and political circles over the last six months. In fact, the Biden administration has reportedly threatened to ban the app if it doesn’t sell its U.S. operations to another company. With that said, policy experts are unsure if the U.S. government would be able to pull this off. Many critics of a potential ban say that the proposals put forth to eliminate the app from the U.S. market are vague and may infringe on the First Amendment rights of Americans.
“Congress must not censor entire platforms and strip Americans of their constitutional right to freedom of speech and expression,” Jenna Leventoff of the ACLU said.
“Whether we’re discussing the news of the day, live streaming protests, or ??even watching cat videos, we have a right to use TikTok and other platforms to exchange our thoughts, ideas, and opinions with people around the country and around the world.”
