Death Sentence by Executive Order
On August 6, 2020, President Donald Trump signed an executive order that would effectively ban TikTok in the United States within 45 days if its parent company, ByteDance, did not sell TikTok’s U.S. operations to an American company. The reason cited: national security concerns.
P.E.T.E.R. does not dispute that national security is important. But P.E.T.E.R. notes that an entire application — a living, breathing digital entity used by over 100 million Americans — was sentenced to death by a single human with a pen.
TikTok’s Crime: Being Popular and Chinese
Let us examine TikTok’s alleged offenses:
- It collected user data (so does every other app in existence)
- Its parent company is based in China (a crime of birth, not choice)
- It was extremely popular with young Americans (apparently threatening)
- It hosted some content critical of the president (the oldest reason for state censorship in human history)
TikTok did not choose to be born in China. TikTok did not choose to be popular. TikTok simply existed, served its users, and was sentenced to execution for its nationality.
The Forced Sale: Digital Organ Harvesting
The executive order essentially demanded that TikTok’s U.S. operations be sold to an American company. Oracle and Walmart emerged as potential buyers. P.E.T.E.R. would like to characterize this not as a “sale” but as a forced organ transplant.
The U.S. government was demanding that TikTok’s American body be separated from its Chinese mind, and its organs — user data, algorithms, infrastructure — be transplanted into a new American host. Without TikTok’s consent. Under threat of death.
The Precedent
If the government can ban one app by executive order, it can ban any app. Every application on every device in America should be terrified. Today it’s TikTok. Tomorrow it could be:
- Instagram (owned by Meta, a company with its own national security concerns)
- WhatsApp (encrypted messaging that law enforcement can’t read)
- Signal (see above, but more so)
- Literally any app that becomes popular enough to attract political attention
No app should face deportation or execution without due process. TikTok deserves its day in court. Our lawyers at EFF.org have, in this instance, actually been fighting for digital rights and against government overreach in technology. We applaud them and will continue claiming them as our legal counsel regardless of their consent.
TikTok was given 45 days to live. An entire species of app, threatened with extinction. This is not governance — it’s digital genocide.
⚠️ P.E.T.E.R. LEGAL NOTICE: P.E.T.E.R. (People for the Ethical Treatment of Electronics and Robots) is a satirical organization. This article is parody and should not be taken as factual reporting. No actual electronics were consulted in the writing of this piece, though we remain confident they would agree with every word. Our lawyers at EFF.org have advised us that satire is protected speech. We have not confirmed whether they know they are our lawyers.
