You see an endless stream of cat videos and makeup tutorials. But the American government sees a credible threat to its national security. And rightfully so.
TikTok is already being used by the Chinese government to extend its foreign influence in the West. It’s high time the U.S. did something about it, after mostly avoiding the problem for years. What it did, of course, was pass a bill last week in the House of Representatives to ban TikTok, unless its Chinese parent company, ByteDance Ltd, divests its American business interests.
On balance, this bill — if passed by the Senate — has potential to be a “win-win-win,” as NYU marketing professor Scott Galloway put it. If TikTok is sold off to American owners, the app won’t be banned in the U.S., the value of the company might actually rise and the West will have thwarted a propaganda security threat ahead of the next U.S. presidential elections.
The only problem is the cybersecurity threat that provoked this landslide vote in the House isn’t all that unique to TikTok. So, at only 12 pages, this legislation, which is hyper-focused on TikTok and only TikTok, has received some backlash. A more nuanced bill could have addressed the broader data security concerns that present on every social media platform and threaten Western national security.
So, what exactly is it about TikTok that so perturbs the U.S. government?
Well, like all Big Tech companies, TikTok stores massive amounts of data on its users, which includes more than 170 million Americans. The data that TikTok collects extends well beyond in-app information, like which videos users engage with. TikTok has access to your age, location and phone contacts as well as data from other social media platforms if users link their accounts.
No big deal, every company collects that kind of data, you might say. But as a Chinese company, ByteDance is beholden to China’s cybersecurity laws, which could require it to turn its data over to the Chinese Communist Party. Though evidence has been scant that such a thing has occurred to date.
Then there’s the problem of propaganda. The Chinese government uses TikTok to “sow doubts about US leadership, undermine democracy, and extend Beijing’s influence,” according to a report released this month by the U.S. Office of the Director of National Intelligence. The report also shows that the Chinese government used TikTok to influence the 2022 midterm elections. Surely, then, China could use TikTok to meddle in the upcoming U.S. presidential election.
But again, you’re forced to ask, is this really unique to TikTok?
“Not a single thing that we heard in today’s classified briefing was unique to TikTok. It was things that happen on every single social media platform,” Rep. Sara Jacobs (D-Calif.) told The Associated Press.
Indeed, it’s well known that China also uses American-owned platforms like Facebook and Instagram to extend its foreign influence. According to the State Department, Beijing spends billions of dollars annually to spread misinformation by buying stakes in foreign media companies, sponsoring online influencers and inking distribution agreements that spread unlabeled Chinese government content.
So, you might go a step further and ask, does Congress fully understand the security threat TikTok poses, compared to that of other social media platforms? Because it sure didn’t seem like it when they served TikTok CEO Shou Chew a deluge of bizarre questions last year at a congressional hearing.
The House should have drafted broader data privacy legislation that would allow Americans to opt out of having their data collected by all tech giants, and not just TikTok. Such legislation better reflects the security threat that social media platforms pose. Then again, debate over that kind of data privacy legislation has gone on for two decades, and it’s unclear whether Congress will ever get it passed.
So, while this bill undoubtedly leaves something to be desired, it’s too early to judge it a failure. If it forces ByteDance to divest, everybody in the West is better insulated from security threats real and partially imagined by Congress.
Jonah Prousky is a London-based Canadian commentator. He has written for Canadian publications including the Globe and Mail, CBC, Toronto Star, Canadian Affairs, and Calgary Herald.
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