Reports that the Biden administration is threatening to ban TikTok, the country’s most downloaded and one of the most used apps, sparked a frenzy of suspicion and outrage from users on Thursday.
Some have called it a violation of the 1st Amendment. Others claimed it was a ploy to help Instagram Reels, Facebook owner Meta’s short video service. Some have questioned why TikTok is being singled out as a threat given the number of apps hoarding their users’ personal information.
And some simply appealed to policymakers for compassion. “Please don’t ban TikTok. Me and my teenage son are having a great time there,” says a Twitter user named Aimee Vance tweetedand then added: “Together…”
Here’s a brief overview of what’s happening and why, along with some of the pros and cons of the government’s position.
What does the board want?
President Biden is trying to do what President Trump wanted to do: take TikTok off the hands of a Chinese company under Chinese law. The app is developed by ByteDance, an internet-focused company founded in China in 2012. While ByteDance has attracted some global investors, it is still controlled by the Chinese founders.
The Trump administration even went so far as to ban TikTok in the United States in 2020. However, that order was blocked by two federal courts, which found the administration had exceeded its powers.
Recently, the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, a group of federal agencies that investigate national security concerns of such investments, issued an ultimatum to ByteDance: sell TikTok or wait for a ban in the United States, according to the Wall Street Journal and several other United States outlets. A TikTok spokesperson said a sale would not address national security concerns because it would not impose new restrictions on access to the app’s data.
TikTok’s CEO will testify at a congressional hearing next week. The company has proposed storing US users’ data in that country, with technical and operational safeguards to prevent access by the Chinese government. But US officials seem unconvinced that this approach will effectively allay their concerns.
Congress, meanwhile, is considering a nationwide ban on apps controlled by the Chinese government. And the federal government, like many state and local governments around the world, has banned TikTok on devices that are handed out to its employees. Orange County joined their ranks on Tuesday.
Can the government really ban TikTok?
Experts in the telecom industry say it is technically possible, but there are problems.
The main players here are the two companies that make the dominant mobile phone operating systems and app stores, Apple and Google. They could help the government enforce compliance by removing TikTok from their app stores, forcing anyone who wants to install or update the software on their phones to “download” it from another source.
It’s not hard on an Android phone, but it’s harder on an Apple iPhone – at least for now. Under pressure from US and European governments, Apple will reportedly allow sideloading in the new operating system, which is expected to be released this year.
However, Apple and Google can go further by using their control over the software on their devices to make their phones TikTok-incompatible. At the very least, they can force current TikTok users to stick with the current version of the software, which is likely to lose performance over time.
But this approach has a trade-off, says Emma Llansó, director of the Free Expression Project at the Center for Democracy and Technology. Without regular privacy and security updates, the app would “become a good target for people looking to exploit outdated software,” she said, adding, “It creates a different kind of vulnerability that will affect millions of people, including the very young.” “
If the government officially bans TikTok, network operators could potentially block traffic between the company’s servers and US users. But the app’s huge user base could scramble to find ways around obstacles, such as using virtual private networks to connect to TikTok in other countries, said Michael Calabrese, director of the Wireless Future Project in New America. “Smart Chinese can do that, well [it] should be so much easier here,” Calabrese said. “I wouldn’t be surprised if anything comes out of this.”
Why is TikTok a target?
The Biden administration and members of Congress from both parties have been expressing concerns about TikTok for months. While some lawmakers have complained about the network’s content and its impact on young people, the main concern is with the network’s owners.
Sara Collins, senior policy adviser to advocacy group Public Knowledge, said the potential for exploitation by China’s authoritarian government makes the app’s privacy threats unique. “If TikTok was magically owned by an American company, we would be talking about it as Google or Facebook in the same breath,” she said.
TikTok collects a lot of data about its users, including their location and contacts, Collins said. Other companies do the same, mainly because federal laws do not protect this information. Collins even said, “There’s a whole industry of data brokers selling this data.”
“It’s hard to discern a TikTok problem when the US has a privacy problem,” she said.
Still, there are fears that the Chinese Communist Party or Chinese government officials will demand access to the data for purposes far less benign than personalizing your video stream. Under Chinese law, ByteDance must disclose personal data relevant to national security when requested by the government.
It is not clear if and what sensitive data the Beijing government has collected from TikTok. Part of the challenge in evaluating the Biden administration’s stance, Llansó said, is that intelligence agencies have not shared — and probably never will — the information underlying their concerns about TikTok.
However, in December, the public got a glimpse of TikTok’s potential for doom when the company admitted that some of its employees had been using the app to track journalists’ locations. TikTok said employees monitor news leaks within the company, but for some critics, the episode clarified what the Chinese government can do through the platform.
Critics say the Chinese government could not only use the data TikTok already collects, but force the app to collect additional information solely for government purposes. And beyond the surveillance threat, they say China could manipulate TikTok’s video feeds or the app itself to further its propaganda.
At a congressional hearing last year, FBI Director Christopher Wray said TikTok raised a number of national security concerns. “This includes the possibility that the Chinese government could use it to monitor data collection from millions of users, or the recommendation algorithm that could be used to influence operations if they wanted to, or software on millions of devices to monitor what they are doing.” presents an opportunity to compromise personal devices,” Wray said, according to National Public Radio.
But neither China nor TikTok are unique, Llansó said. Those who use social media networks must accept that different governments are trying to influence them, she said — not just authoritarian regimes, but Western democracies as well.
Source: LA Times