Events

Event Description

The Levitt Center invites you to a Community Conversation on TikTok: Security Threat or Speech Haven? Please note this event takes place in the Blood Fitness Center Conference Room. Space is limited!  RSVP here for lunch. 

On January 18, TikTok went dark. After the Supreme Court upheld a federal law ordering TikTok’s Chinese owner, ByteDance, to sell the platform or be banned in the United States, TikTok shut down – for 12 hours. The following day, TikTok was back, buoyed by the new administration’s promise to save the app. Some observers believe that the return of TikTok is a blow to national security and reasonable public safeguards on social media. Others see this as a victory for free speech. And others are just grateful to be able to remain TikTok entrepreneurs and to continue scrolling. The federal law still stands, however, and the fight over TikTok may not be over.

What do you think? Is access to TikTok an issue of free speech? If so, whose speech is being protected – content consumers, content producers, or ByteDance itself? Can the federal government ever legitimately regulate – or even shut down – social media sites? Is the panic over TikTok – as a national security threat or as a platform for free speech – overblown or misplaced? Join us for this student-focused, student-facilitated Community Conversation and let’s talk about it! 

The Levitt Center will follow up with a confirmation once you have registered.