Banning TikTok: national security or national censorship?

At least 25 US states have banned the popular social media site TikTok, mainly on state-owned devices and bills have been introduced in Congress for the federal government to do the same. The reason is national security fears of the Chinese-owned company sharing information collected on the site to Chine.

Syracuse University associate professor and social media researcher Jennifer Grygiel (they/them) is available to speak to the media about this issue. They said this is less about national security and more about censorship:

• “This is how statecraft takes place in the digital era—the United States has a habit of framing its efforts as benevolent and in the national interest. But the world is bigger than individual nations. People everywhere should be concerned about sovereigns controlling public opinion through nationalistic mechanisms. The threat to freedom of information in the United States is bigger than TikTok,” said Grygiel.

You can see their full bio on their website: http://jennifergrygiel.com/ and here is a sample of some of their interviews:

• CBS News, Examining the Future of social media amid Twitter’s Upheaval
• Washington Post, Young kids are bringing TikTok memes to the playground
• CNN, LinkedIn is having a momentthanks to a wave of layoffs
• Forbes, Free Speech Absolutist Elon Musk Removed BBC Documentary Critical Of India’s Leader
• Wall Street Journal, Don’t Have $44 Billion forYour Own Social-Media Network? Try Mastodon
• Time, Meta, TikTok, and TwitterHope to Fight Election Misinformation. Experts Say Their Plans Aren’t Enough
• The Conversation, (opinion) US and Russia engage in a digital battle for hearts and minds
• Associated Press, Tape or chewing gum:’ Twitter’s lapses echo worldwide
• Quartz, What’s the best case—OK, least bad—scenario for Twitter?
• ZDNet, Musk’s vague ideas of free speech and Tesla’s ambition could spell doom for India’s minorities
• The Associated Press, What Musk’s past tweets reveal about Twitter’s next owner
• The Guardian, Truth Social: will Trump’s ‘free speech haven’ overcome its rocky start?

Please contact Ellen James Mbuqe, executive director of media relations, at ejmbuqe@syr.edu or 412-496-0551 to set up an interview.