TikTok TikTok

Is the clock running out on TikTok?

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Florence Lo | Reuters

Danger of TikTok

“Thank you for the opportunity to appear today and to answer questions on these important issues.”

This is how TikTok CEO, Shou Zi Chew, ended his opening remarks on Thursday in front of the House Energy and Commerce Committee. After taking those questions, I am not so sure how thankful Chew really was for the opportunity.

In a rare display of bipartisanism, Republican and Democrat legislators alike seemed antagonistic toward the TikTok CEO, leaving many people reevaluating the odds that Congress could go through with banning the popular social media app. As NPR’s Bobby Allyn put it, “the future of TikTok is very, very uncertain and likely to become even more uncertain after today.”

Chew isn’t the first CEO of a major tech company to face Congressional scrutiny. The CEOs of Facebook, Google, Amazon, and Apple have all been pressed by lawmakers in recent years; however, the Federal Government’s scrutiny of TikTok is significantly different from the scrutiny of those companies. This hearing was not about TikTok’s marketplace dominance or censorship; it was all about national security.

National security? Is an app full of dancing and lip-syncing really that bad?

Yes. Yes, it is.

Unlike the Big Tech companies of Silicon Valley, TikTok is owned by the Chinese company ByteDance. Like all other companies in China, this means that the Chinese Communist Party has the right to demand access to any and everything belonging to ByteDance including user data. This is true no matter what language the CCP or ByteDance uses to try and create separation between the two entities. What belongs to ByteDance also belongs to the CCP.

Why does it matter that China has access to Americans’ dance videos though? Klon Kitchen, a National Security expert, explains the significance:

“Why would China want my data? So what if they have my social media videos—I don’t care if they see me flossing.” This is when I launch into my spiel about how it’s about more than just one person’s data, it’s about the comprehensive insights a nation like China can derive when it’s getting troves of personal information from hundreds of millions of Americans. I then typically use my go-to metaphor, where I ask the person to imagine waking up to a news story reporting China has secretly deployed 100 million sensors around the United States and has been clandestinely collecting our personal contacts, photos, GPS locations, online purchasing and viewing habits, and even our keyboard swipes and patterns. I tell them this would obviously cause an uproar and then, feeling very pleased with myself, I lower the boom by telling them this is exactly what is happening every day with the more than 130 million American users of TikTok.

As Kitchen mentions, a single user’s data does not have much usefulness in and of itself. It is the immense amount of data on millions of Americans amalgamated into an in-depth portrait of their behaviors, attitudes, feelings, ideas, etc. that makes TikTok so valuable to the CCP and so dangerous for the United States. TikTok is more intrusive and more prominent than any Chinese spy balloon. This is why the White House has already banned the app on all Federal Agency devices.

It isn’t far-fetched to think of a scenario where a deep understanding of Americans could be exploited by the CCP. By adjusting the algorithm, the CCP could feed Americans conspiracy theories or simply promote the issues that divide Americans the most. We are only now starting to understand the negative impact of social media in general; now, imagine the negative impact a social media company could have that prioritizes negativity over profit.

This isn’t even considering the mental health impact that TikTok has on Americans. In a report from the non-profit Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH), “the center found that it can take less than three minutes after signing up for a TikTok account to see content related to suicide and about five more minutes to find a community promoting eating disorder content.”

This is likely why the Chinese version of TikTok, the one used by those within the country’s borders, is a much different version than the one provided to Americans. If there was nothing to worry about with TikTok, then why would China make the version its teens use so different?

Will it be banned?

While I think I’ve made it clear that I think a ban on TikTok is appropriate, will a ban actually take place? Betting on politicians in Washington D.C. to do the right thing, even when there are plentiful reasons for doing so, is as surefire a way to lose your money as betting on the number 1 seeds in this year’s March Madness, but there are some reasons for optimism.

First, there seems to be a bipartisan consensus that the United States needs to face China as a threat. There are disagreements about what exactly should be done, but the consensus seems to be that something needs to be done to confront China. A ban on TikTok falls right in line with the consensus, so it isn’t absurd to think that it could happen.

Also, there have been growing concerns about privacy in recent years and a ban on TikTok could be a first step in addressing some of those concerns. Politicians that advocated for data privacy reform can go back to their constituencies and show them the ban on TikTok as a promise kept.

Finally, a recent poll from Quinnipiac found almost “half of Americans (49 percent) support a national ban of foreign technology such as the video-sharing service TikTok, while 42 percent oppose a national ban.” This isn’t a settled matter amongst the populace, but the fact that banning foreign technology isn’t a minority would make a ban on TikTok a much easier sell.

With that said, there are some significant headwinds facing a ban on the app. The most significant headwind is the sheer popularity of TikTok. With over 100 million American users, TikTok usage spans to a third of the American population. A ban on the app would be a significant tangible change that would not go unnoticed. Polls can show that a plurality of Americans may support such a change, but that may be easier to say in a poll than actual experience in real life. Being without the app could prove much more unpopular than polls indicate.

This brings me to another significant headwind: young people are most opposed to a ban. A recent poll found that among registered voters “Gen Z voters said they oppose a ban by a margin of 53% to 34%.” This is significant because this isn’t just young people in general but specifically registered voters. This group votes Democratic by significant margins, which means Democrats risk upsetting an important core of their voting base if they follow through with a ban. Are there enough Democratic politicians willing to do this?

Finally, a ban on TikTok would require Congress to actually do something of substance. Instead of being the most powerful branch of government as the framers of the Constitution intended, Congress is full of people that are more concerned with being famous on cable news than passing meaningful legislation (i. e. their job). A law banning an app that over 100 million Americans have used would certainly be substantial. Based on recent trends, this would make its passage an anomaly.

So, will TikTok be banned? I have no idea, but I do think Americans can make the decision for politicians by deleting the app from their phones themselves. I don’t think giving a totalitarian power that wants only harm to come to Americans an immense amount of data and influence over Americans is worth a little entertainment.

God Bless,

Hunter Burnett