The Politics of TikTok
How the popular social media app got caught in the cross hairs of U.S.-China tensions
If you’ve been paying attention to the news lately, then you’ll notice two things about the Trump administration: One, they’re doing a crummy job at managing the coronavirus pandemic, and two, they’re setting their sights on China as a political scapegoat for this health crisis. From accusations of instigating the pandemic to shutting down the Chinese consulate in Houston on unfounded accusations of espionage, the Trump Administration’s most recent attacks on China manifest itself in the potential ban of popular social media app TikTok.
What’s the Big Deal Behind TikTok?
TikTok is owned by a Chinese internet company called ByteDance. American officials are concerned that the Chinese government could use TikTok to get access to information on Americans who use TikTok because the app is owned by a Chinese company. TikTok has stated numerous times that it is not influenced by the Chinese government, but as of last Friday, President Trump has planned to ban the app, possibly through an executive order.
In response, ByteDance has tried to sell the American operations of TikTok to stop the Trump Administration from banning the app. Microsoft is one company who is in discussions of potentially buying the app. ByteDance has also discussed selling a large stake of TikTok to American investors in hopes of appeasing the Trump Administration, but they have rejected this.
A similar quandary between a Chinese internet company and the Trump Administration took place last year where a Chinese company that had bought the mobile dating app Grindr sold it to an American company under pressure from the Trump Administration.
*8/10 Update: President Trump signed an executive order last week prohibiting transactions with TikTok if ByteDance does not divest it in 45 days.
Our Take
If the purpose of banning the social media app was to prevent a national security threat in the form of data and information collection, then why ban it now? The timing seems to be a bit odd, especially since Trump’s announcement of banning TikTok momentarily took the attention away from the coronavirus pandemic that continually ravishes the majority of the nation. The sudden announcement of a potential TikTok ban is an unnecessary digression from the fact that over 150,000 people have died from coronavirus and infection rates are no where near slowing down as many states grapple with going back to school.
Does anyone find it timely that this announcement was made less than three months away from the November 2020 election? If TikTok was such a concern, then why was it not addressed earlier or before TikTok rose in popularity? It seems that TikTok is yet another pawn President Trump is attempting to use to revitalize his dwindling base.
Additionally, how might one actually ban a mobile app that is currently installed in the devices of over 100 million users? President Trump may try to use an executive order to demolish it from the app store, but what’s there to stop individuals from continually using it, downloading from the TikTok website, or using more unconventional means to access the app? Clearly, Trump and his posse have underestimated how far technologically addicted Gen Z kids will go to laugh at 10 second videos at 3 AM.
If national security is the prime reason for banning TikTok, then why not use this opportunity to reform laws on internet security and personal data, which is currently operating on what feels like the Wild West. Why not open the blackbox of TikTok algorithms that organize and collect data to better understand what we’re facing? Why not allocate more resources and support towards internet companies that can serve as competitors of TikTok, and thus take away users from TikTok and introduce a platform of equivalent clout and operating in the U.S.? Why not develop stricter guidelines with the Apple Store and Android Store for data collection for app companies that are outside of the U.S.? Why not reinforce stricter privacy laws for all social media apps in general?
If this was really about national security, then these questions would have been considered and explored. Instead, what this is really about is President Trump’s strategy to vilify anything remotely Chinese in order to salvage his presidential approval ratings and reputation before the November election.
