The prospects of the Biden administration banning social media platform TikTok in the United States has raised concerns in the country about this move potentially alienating younger voters.
As at least one US media outlet points out, young Americans who were born after 1996 – the so-called Generation Z – are predominantly liberal and Democratic, and their "stronger-than-expected" turnout during the midterm election last year likely helped prevent an overwhelming triumph by the Republicans.
And since a not-inconsiderable portion of this demographic uses TikTok, a ban on this app might affect their attitude towards politics and the federal government, and not in a good way, the media outlet suggests.
A Columbia University's Teachers College professor named Ioana Literat who studied young TikTok users reportedly suggested that the video-sharing platform has become “inextricably linked” to Generation Z culture.
Arguing that "young people see politics personally," Literat postulated that taking TikTok away from them "will further tap into their personal view of politics," and that she does not think they "will take it lightly."
"The politician in me thinks you’re gonna literally lose every voter under 35, forever," US Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo warned when she broached this issue during an interview with another outlet.
These revelations come as only 39 percent of Americans between 18 and 39 years of age approve of Joe Biden, with 50 percent of them disapproving of the POTUS, according to Reuters/Ipsos polling data released earlier this month.
At the same time, another poll suggests that some 63 percent of Americans between 18 and 34 years of age oppose a potential ban on TikTok.
Earlier, the Biden administration threatened to ban TikTok in the United States unless the social media platform’s owner, Chinese internet tech company ByteDance, sells its stakes in the app. While Washington claimed personal data of American TikTok users might otherwise end up in Chinese government’s hands, these speculations have been refuted by the ByteDance leadership.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin also noted last week that the United States “has so far failed to produce evidence that TikTok threatens US national security."
"Data security issues should not be used as a tool for some countries to overstretch the concept of national security, abuse state power and unjustifiably suppress other countries' enterprises," he said.