Oct. 23, 2024, Wednesday, 8PM (ET)

TikTok has over 100 million users in the United States and 1 billion worldwide. But the US government may ban TikTok, alleging national security risk as the reason due to TikTok’s parent company being Chinese. Is there any evidence to support this claim? Could the possible ban be part of the US’s strategy to contain a modernizing, high-tech China? What would a TikTok ban mean for freedom of speech? Can the two countries cooperate on global problems and work for peace?

Panel Information

Moderator:

Ken Yee, Secretary of USCPFA – New England

Speakers:

Marcus Breen will speak on “The US case against Tik Tok: more questions than answers.”  Marcus Breen worked as a journalist and consultant in Australia before moving to the US in1996 to work as an academic. He teaches and his research includes critical explorations about the relationship between communication, political economy and culture. He is working on a book about China for peace loving non-experts. He has been teaching in the Communication Department at Boston College since 2014.

Megan Russell, Coordinator of CodePink’s China Is Not Our Enemy campaign, will speak on “The Forged China Threat.”  The US government is abusing the narrative of China as an enemy to push certain agenda, such as the Tik Tok ban.  Megan is a Tik Tok fan and can talk about its impact on younger generations as a tool for activism and free speech.  Megan is a graduate of the London School of Economics, has lived in Shanghai and speaks Mandarin.

Karen Gullo is Senior Writer for Free Speech and Privacy at Electronic Frontier Foundation, the leading nonprofit defending civil rights in the digital world. Karen is an award-winning former journalist with Associated Press and Bloomberg News. She will talk about how banning TikTok undermines the free speech and association rights of millions of users and may run afoul of federal protections for the free flow of information in and out of the US. She will also talk about how the First Amendment protects Tik Tok users and the platform itself.

Ting Huang is Communications Director of Massachusetts Peace Action (MAPA), an anti-war organization. She is Chinese-Australian, currently based in Massachusetts, and manages MAPA’s TikTok account. Ting will speak on the various narratives surrounding the TikTok ban, and on how the TikTok ban is ultimately a form of economic war waged on China by the U.S. to maintain global hegemony.

Sponsored by: US-China Peoples Friendship Association-New England.  Co-sponsored by: CodePink, Massachusetts Peace Action

Register to attend.