The TikTok Ban Is “a Vast Overreach, Rooted in Hypocrisy,” Wired’s Katie Drummond says
The Political Scene | The New Yorker
The New Yorker
4.3 • 3.9K Ratings
🗓️ 13 May 2024
⏱️ 23 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
David Remnick talks with Katie Drummond, the global editorial director of Wired magazine, about the TikTok ban that just passed with bipartisan support in Washington. The app will be removed from distribution in U.S. app stores unless ByteDance, the Chinese company that owns TikTok, sells it to an approved buyer. TikTok is suing to block that law. Is this a battle among tech giants for dominance, or a real issue of national security? Drummond sees the ban as a corporate crusade by Silicon Valley to suppress a foreign competitor with a superior product. She finds the claim that TikTok is a national-security threat to be “a vast overreach that is rooted in hypotheticals and that is rooted in hypocrisy, and in … a fundamental refusal to look across the broad spectrum of social-media platforms, and treat all of them from a regulatory point of view with the same level of care and precision.”
For another perspective on the TikTok ban, listen to David Remnick’s conversation with the tech executive Jacob Helberg, who lobbied lawmakers to pass it. The segment will publish on the New Yorker Radio Hour feed on Tuesday.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Hi there, I'm Lalei Arikoglu, and this podcast is brought to you by Wilderness, a conservation-driven |
| 0:06.5 | hospitality company that offers intimate wildlife encounters in extraordinary remote landscapes. |
| 0:12.5 | Last year, I embarked on two separate solo adventures with Wilderness, one to Botswana and the other |
| 0:18.3 | to Namibia, where the expert guides delivered a truly once-in-a-lifetime |
| 0:23.6 | experience. I promise you, whatever you watch and see before you go won't prepare you for the thrill |
| 0:29.5 | of a wilderness adventure. eBay, it's a place to fall in love with new pre-loved vintage and rare |
| 0:36.7 | fashion over and over again. |
| 0:39.1 | Your favorite designers, expertly authenticated. |
| 0:42.6 | Yeah, eBay. |
| 0:44.1 | Things people love. |
| 0:49.4 | This is the political scene, and I'm David Remnick. |
| 1:03.7 | I think I first started hearing about a ban on TikTok in the summer of 2020. |
| 1:09.0 | Donald Trump was flexing his muscles against China, and he signed an executive order that August. |
| 1:10.4 | And I confess, I imagine some disgruntled teenagers out there, |
| 1:14.1 | but I didn't give it a great deal of thought. |
| 1:17.2 | A few months later, a judge appointed by Trump, no less, |
| 1:20.3 | block the order as arbitrary and capricious. |
| 1:24.4 | But now the TikTok ban is back, |
| 1:26.6 | and this time it may well stick. |
| 1:30.0 | Congress just passed it with bipartisan support, and President Biden signed it into law. |
| 1:35.8 | It stipulates that TikTok will be removed from app stores unless its owner, BightDance, sells it, |
| 1:42.4 | and BightDance in turn has now filed a lawsuit against the |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from The New Yorker, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of The New Yorker and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.