Catherine Powell (’94), Fordham University School of Law Professor and Adjunct Senior Fellow for Women and Foreign Policy at the Council on Foreign Relations, coauthored a blog post for the Council on Foreign Relations citing TikTok as the “easy scapegoat” over digital security concerns while warning against broader lack of regulation and privacy protections (“The TikTok Trap,” Sep. 13). “[T]here seems to be a pervasive state of anxiety about the future of technology in the United States, and without any promise of widespread, substantive data protections. . . . Simultaneously, there is an obsession over the perceived geopolitical threat of China, the focus on which distracts and even undermines the larger effort to protect our data and privacy. . . . TikTok has become a convenient scapegoat, with panic surrounding the app inciting a hodgepodge of state, local, and even university-level bans and restrictions that many argue miss the mark in addressing mental health and privacy concerns, and could violate first amendment rights.”
