Will the US ever leave Tik Tok alone?
With news emerging in recent months that the new POTUS, Joe Biden, plans to replace Trump’s proposed Tik Tok ban with his own new rules for Chinese-owned software, many users of the app have left wondering, what does the future hold for Tik Tok in America?
It has been just over a year since Donald Trump outlined his initial plan to ban the Chinese-owned video-sharing social networking platform, Tik Tok, from the smartphones of the United States.
Using research indicating that the majority of Tik Tok’s popularity falling to users in Western societies, particularly the US, President Trump filed an executive order outlining his supposed reasons for the proposed ban in August 2020.
In August 2020, whilst citing the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, the National Emergencies Act and the United States Code, Trump declared: “the spread in the United States of mobile applications developed and owned by companies in China continues to threaten the national security, foreign policy, and economy of the United States”.
He went on to allege that “Tik Tok automatically captures vast swaths of information from its users” which “threatens to allow the Chinese Communist Party to access Americans’ personal and proprietary information — potentially allowing China to track the locations of Federal employees and contractors, build dossiers of personal information for blackmail and conduct corporate espionage”.
Before outlining his proposal to sell Tik Tok to US ownership, or ultimately ban its use in the United States, Trump lastly went on to claim that the app censors certain types of politically sensitive content and to promote disinformation campaigns, features that he claimed would cause harm to American protocol.
Despite extensive discussions and proposals, the pleas made against Tik Tok by the Trump Administration were subsequently blocked by numerous district judges in December 2020.
Since these rulings, recent figures have recorded that Tik Tok currently has over 130 million monthly active users in the United States.
It seemed to come as a surprise to a large proportion of American Tik Tok users however, that in June this year, Joe Biden, the new President of the United State, announced that he would be replacing Trump’s proposed ban with his own plan to “investigate” the supposed national security risks that the app poses.
A statement, which arguably echoed that made by Trump in earlier months, was released on 9 June 2021 by a senior administration official on behalf of President Biden. It read: “The administration is committed to promoting an open, interoperable, reliable, and secure internet and to protecting human rights online and offline.
“The challenge that we’re addressing is that certain countries, including China, do not share these commitments or values and are instead working to leverage digital technologies and American data in ways that present unacceptable national security risks”.
In the months following this June’s announcement, Chinese politician and the deputy director of the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs Information Department, Zhao Lijian addressed President Biden’s plans. Despite describing the new proposal for investigation as a “positive step in the right direction”.
Mr Lijian went on warn President Biden: “They [The US] should immediately stop stretching the concept of national security and stop wanting abusing state power to crack down on the behaviours of China’s technology companies.
“The Chinese government will continue to protect the proper legitimate rights of Chinese companies”.
These comments caused a stir amongst the American population. Whilst a large proportion of TikTok users were using the app to express their relief at the thought of a more relaxed, “spotlight-free” perspective on the app on behalf of the US government, many were dissatisfied with the decision to revoke Trump’s original proposal.
Like Trump, a number of these disgruntled Americans cited concerns over Biden’s “weak” stance on privacy, security and data protection as reasons for this.
This has left Tik Tok’s position in the United States as unstable as the summer prior, with various tech and cybersecurity companies in the US voicing many of their disagreements about the legitimacy of the government’s concerns throughout July and August.
“The political stance of Donald Trump on Tik Tok was completely centred on ownership,” says Dr Frederic Lemieux, Intelligence and Cybersecurity Director at Georgetown University. “This was about foreign competitors and foes being involved in the ownership of an extremely influential app. Yes, the safety of the data and information about Americans is important, but I do not believe this was the main concern of the Trump administration.”
Dr Lemieux, 43, who’s work previously specialised in the areas of Disruptive Technology and National Security, cited the centrepiece of the argument against Tik Tok as being its competition against similar, American-owned social media companies, such as Instagram and Facebook.
“We also need to take into consideration that during the process of the Presidential campaigns in America, the platform of Tik Tok was used by a lot of US subscribers to promote anti-Trump messages.”
It was on Tik Tok that hundreds of ticket sales were made for Trump’s rallies in Tulsa, Oklahome, last year, only for buyers not to show up. It was said that the prank was to indicate a lack of supporters for the presidential candidate.
“From this point, it was almost as though Tik Tok was starting to be viewed by both Trump and Biden — wrongly, I might add — as a political weapon of which they had no control. This was clearly personal, not about legitimate concern surrounding China and the influence of the Chinese government.”
“We [America] see other social media platforms like Facebook pushing Russian propaganda all the time, and we own Facebook! The idea that the US government are supposedly concerned about Chinese influence and propaganda and security, this is not genuine. The entire Tik Tok fiasco in the United States is about control, and the idea of politicians losing control of their own image to, essentially, foreign ownership.”
When asked whether he believes that steps should continue to be taken to ban Tik Tok as such under the Biden administration, Dr Lemieux said: “No — it is hypocritical. Why are we looking at Tik Tok so harshly when only recently, we were forced to deal with Facebook’s actual data controversies?!”
“It was politically convenient to go after Tik Tok. If Trump had as many followers on Tik Tok as he had on Twitter back in the day, do you would he have come for Tik Tok? I do not believe the US government’s fight against this app can be sustained.”
Contrastingly, James Andrew Lewis, Senior Vice President and the Director of the Technology and Public Policy Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) in Washington, D.C., believes that a tighter grip on Tik Tok could not come at a better time.
He said: “The courts blocked the Trump effort to ban Tik Tok on the grounds that the decision had been arbitrary and capricious and wasn’t well explained. It will be the second time around.”
Prior to joining the CSIS, Mr Lewis worked at the Department of State as a diplomat and member of the Senior Executive Service.
He said: “The Biden EO [executive order] lays out criteria and standards that allow for a reasoned decision that will withstand the scrutiny of courts. That will make it much more difficult for Tik Tok to challenge.”
Mr Lewis explained that the Biden Administration are currently waiting for the Committee for Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) to decide whether Trump was right in his demand for Tik Tok to divest part of their business to US buyers so they have more information to address apparent data concerns.
“If CFIUS tell ByteDance that they have to sell, there will be no need to go back to court,” he said. “My impression is that the intention to block Tik Tok hasn’t changed with the new administration — rightly so. We cannot fully trust China without an investigation.
“It’s worth noting that the Chinese government have become increasingly concerned about Chinese companies trading on Wall Street who have to follow America regulations.
“This might give the US government access to Chinese citizen data — it’s also why some Chinese analysts say that selling Tik Tok to Americans creates risk for China.”
Mr Lewis stated his opinion that it is right that both countries should be tightening up on access to data and the power of tech giants, before then stating: “China being hesitant of selling parts of Tik Tok to the US for investigation seems a bit paranoid to me — I suppose it’s an indication of why we should rightly be concerned about Tik Tok.”
