Reporters Without Borders (RSF), an international organization that works for the rights of journalists, has urgently called for independent legislation to address the issue of allowing foreign social media platforms to operate in a democratic country.
The US Congress has passed a law on April 23 that aims to protect US citizens from applications controlled by foreign adversaries.
The bill agrees that legislation is urgently needed to rid American politics of tiktok.
Regarding Tik Tok, the American Congress has decided to ban the Chinese company ‘Byte Dance’, the owner of this app, in the United States in order to protect American citizens from ‘foreign adversaries’.
RSF believes that this latest attempt by the US to ban a Chinese social media app raises an important underlying issue, which is a complete disregard for the public’s right to access information.
RSF says political officials are too easily swayed by geopolitical considerations and then get to decide on their own whether or not to shut down a social media app used by 148 million Americans.
RSF added that this sensitive issue should be resolved within an independent legal framework and not under the influence of political rulers.
RSF calls on the US government to adopt the design of our system to protect democratic information spaces and develop legislation that binds authoritarian regimes without ignoring the public’s right to access information Addressing the issue of platforms.
