After having successfully evaded Covid for three years, I finally came into contact with the pesky virus over spring break, which left me frustratingly confined within the walls of my room. Instead of enjoying myself at pre-season lacrosse practice, I was sequestered from the world, bored out of my mind, and unable to do anything productive (yes, I’m talking about you, Honors History assignment). TikTok quickly became my link to the outside world, acting as a close companion which entertained me for hours on end as my body did its healing.

On day two of quarantine, as I was scrolling mindlessly through my phone, I came across the recent congressional hearings on a potential ban of the TikTok app within the United States due to national security concerns. The app is owned by ByteDance, a Chinese company that has close ties with the Chinese government. FBI Director Christopher Wray alleges that China’s government is exercising control over the app’s algorithms, allowing it to suggest content and to potentially install influence campaigns against users.

I watched the hearing, truly dumbfounded, as elected officials from both parties stumbled awkwardly in their questioning of TikTok’s CEO, Shou Zi Chew. Aside from refusing to let Chew answer, the questions posed by legislators revealed their fundamental lack of understanding about app technology and how young people use TikTok and other social media apps.

Here’s my reality check for Congress; while I don’t dismiss the national security concern that manipulated social media could have pernicious effects on the public—we learned that lesson from Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election and the Trump campaign’s improper use of Facebook’s Cambridge Analytica data—it misses a larger point about the need to establish better regulations around apps’ privacy.

Concerns that the Chinese government is spying on us through TikTok seem hollow when I think of how extensively social media apps are monetized. Is this data exploitation that much different than when I randomly mention that I need to get a new lacrosse stick and four ads for sporting goods stores suddenly pop up on my phone?

TikTok may be monitoring my every keystroke, but so are the sporting goods companies that creepily pay to know when I might need a new lacrosse stick. We are constantly having to adjust to that reality. As uncomfortable as that awareness is, the problem with TikTok seems to be less about who owns the data than it is about the larger issue of who has the right to someone’s personal information in the first place.

If we had laws in place that vigorously protected people’s rights to privacy and simultaneously valued that constitutional right over corporate profit, the TikTok question would be less pressing. Why are concerns that the Chinese government maintains the ability to collect user data through TikTok any more concerning than their ability to buy the same user data through Facebook?

The TikTok craze took off during the early days of Covid when the whole country was locked down, bored, and looking for a time suck that would lift their disconnected spirits. Thankfully, life has moved away from that dark period. During my break, I certainly would have preferred to be on the lacrosse field playing with my teammates than locked in my room scrolling on my phone.

While I had the time to watch TikTok when I was sick, being transfixed by the app is not how I normally spend my free time. Not all young people are impressionable blank slates waiting to have their brains electronically hijacked with subversive messaging. Most of us have already-formed ideas and opinions about the world around us. There is no amount of slow-motion TikTok propaganda that could convince me that the United States should pull back from aiding Ukraine in its war against Russia, and I wholeheartedly believe China committed genocide against the Uyghurs and should be held accountable.

Another important point in the TikTok debate that seems to have been lost is that American democracy is grounded in the principle of free speech. Currently, China bans most major social media apps, websites, and platforms, including Snapchat, Instagram, Facebook, and many more notable additions. Wouldn’t a wholesale ban on TikTok be a comparable restriction on free speech? Perhaps the hearings were just for show and like most congressional hearings, there will not be any concrete change that follows. But let’s hope any legislation that does emerge from the hearings enacts overdue reforms to protect personal privacy rather than imposes government censorship.