TikTok is part of massive experiment on our brains. Josh Hawley’s right to urge a ban | Opinion

Sen. Josh Hawley doesn’t have very many good ideas, so it is only fair to take notice when he does. Banning TikTok makes a lot more sense than raising a fist in salute to encourage Jan. 6 insurrectionists.

Hawley is right in his letter to the Biden administration: There’s no reason the communist-controlled app should be able to pump politically useful poison into the minds of young Americans without getting a response.

As Hawley points out in his letter, there’s a reason 18- to 24-year-olds think Hamas’ sickening slaughter of 1,400 Jews was justified. TikTok’s algorithm boosts that view in their feeds and, as a result, kids parrot what they see so ardently argued on the social media platform they can’t get enough of. That view just happens to match the Chinese regime’s foreign policy goals of dividing America and fueling the deadly feud between Palestinians and Israelis.

The idea that Jews deserve to be slaughtered is antisemitic to its core. Foreign governments don’t have a First Amendment right to polarize our society with digitally manufactured hate.

So let’s ban TikTok, but let’s not pretend it is going to clean up the sewer that our once bright and shiny digital utopia has become.

There’s a reason states across the country are suing over Meta’s Facebook and Instagram. The American-born and owned companies are fueling an epidemic of mental illness, especially depression and anxiety among teen girls. They knew their social media algorithms were dangerous to kids and yet they did precious little to head off the predictable result.

Indeed, as the docket for just one day’s cases in federal court brought by U.S Attorney for the Western District of Missouri Teresa Moore attests, even the most mundane functions of the internet and its app ecology spew poison with real-world consequences, and it is our tech or that of friendly countries that is the vector.

Internet communication enables predators to abuse children

On Nov. 7, “Paul Emerson Schofield, 35, and his wife, Sara Ellen Schofield, 30, both of Jefferson City, each pleaded guilty … to one count of conspiracy to produce child pornography and one count of producing child pornography.”

The former corrections officer and his wife sexually assaulted an unconscious 4-year-old and filmed their deeds, later uploading them to Kik, a Canadian app where they also had discussions about their sickening pastime.

Also on Nov. 7, “Zachary Wes Buckley, 49, pleaded guilty to one count of enticing a minor to engage in illegal sexual activity.” The Bay Springs, Mississippi, man came to Missouri, where he lured a 16-year-old to a Columbia hotel using Google Chat. Google Chat is as basic and red, white and blue as they come.

Also in a press release dated Nov. 7, the U.S. Attorney’s office announced that “Alvan Allen, 44, was found guilty of one count of receiving and distributing child pornography following a bench trial.” There were 1,500 gruesome videos and images of child porn on his computer. I’ll give you one guess where he got ‘em: It begins with an I and ends with a T.

The invention of the internet, I’ll remind you, was funded by America’s Defense Department. I am guessing here, but I don’t think the Schofields, Buckley and Allen are what Uncle Sam had in mind.

Nevertheless here we are — and that’s just one day in one U.S. attorney’s office. There are dozens.

And straight-up evil isn’t the only danger online. With the combination of the internet, apps and streaming, we’re in the middle of an experiment on us.

What happens when there is an infinite amount of entertainment available 24/7 wherever you want it? Does it bring people together or shatter us into a million social niches?

What happens when there is an infinite amount of information, but precious few guide rails to help us discern the true from the half-true and the flat-out fantasy?

What happens when there are dozens of tools designed to connect us to others and make our voices heard, but they are fueled by algorithms that boost conflict and twist reality?

How will artificial intelligence change all of this again?

We are only beginning to find out, and easy steps like banning TikTok are few and far between.

David Mastio, a former editor and columnist for USA Today, is a regional editor for The Center Square and a regular Star Opinion correspondent.