A proposed ban on TikTok is not sitting well with content creators, who make their living on the social media site, WOAI news reports.
"They're saying, 'There's security issues! There's privacy issues!' We don't see how that's any different from Facebook, Instagram or all these other sites," Jessica Serna tells reporter Michael Board.
The Texas travel blogger, who runs an account called My Curly Adventures, uses TikTok as part of her business. Her feed, she says, is full of fun places to visit and eat. Not the Chinese propaganda that opponents claim.
A bipartisan vote in Congress this week seeks to ban TikTok as long as it's owned by a Chinese company called ByteDance. Backers, like Congressman Chip Roy (R-TX), say there is a security concern.
"We are in a cold war with China and some of my colleagues want to ignore this fact," he said in a House Floor speech.
There are worries that the Chinese Communist Party could leverage TikTok to both collect data on Americans and influence public opinion. The rules for business there are very different from the United States. The Chinese government has unlimited access to information stored on servers.
Opponents of the ban, like Congressman Greg Casar (D-TX), feel the side effects need to be closely scrutinized.
"While I have serious data privacy concerns with TikTok, this bill was rapidly rushed to a vote by the Republicans with almost no public scrutiny - and that’s a recipe for unintended consequences.”
Fellow Texas Democrat Joaquin Castro echoed that statement, explaining his "no" vote.
"TikTok has become an important platform for people across the world to speak truth to power, grow small businesses, and share authentic news and narratives from their communities."
Although he admits that there should be serious concerns about TikTok’s current ownership structure, which he says could allow the Chinese government to flood the app with misinformation and suppress free speech. Castro sits on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence.
This week's vote does not mean any immediate changes to TikTok. It still looks and acts the same. A proposed ban now goes before the Senate. But people like Serna are already looking to a future where there is a possibility of its demise. She does not think that will effect the flow of spam and misinformation. All it will do, she thinks is create mistrust of those in power.
"They're saying it's not safe but we're seeing that it's not safe on all platforms."