In recent months, lawmakers in the United States, Europe and Canada have stepped up efforts to restrict access to TikTok, the hugely popular short-form video app owned by Chinese company ByteDance, citing security threats.
The White House told federal agencies on Monday that they had 30 days to remove the app from government devices. Canada and the executive arm of the European Union also recently banned the application of official devices.
A House committee on Wednesday backed an even more extreme step, voting to advance legislation that would allow President Biden to ban TikTok on all devices across the country.
Here’s why the pressure has increased on TikTok, which has said it’s used by more than 100 million Americans.
Why do governments ban TikTok?
It all comes down to China.
Lawmakers and regulators in the West have increasingly expressed concern that TikTok and its parent company, ByteDance, could put sensitive user data, such as location information, in the hands of the Chinese government. They have pointed to laws that allow the Chinese government to secretly demand data from Chinese companies and citizens for intelligence-gathering operations. They are also concerned that China could use TikTok’s content recommendations to misinform.
TikTok has long denied such allegations and has tried to distance itself from ByteDance.
Has any country banned TikTok?
India banned the platform in mid-2020, costing ByteDance one of its biggest markets, as the government cracked down on 59 Chinese-owned apps, claiming they were secretly transmitting user data to servers outside. from India.
What is happening with the bans in the United States?
Since November, more than two dozen states have banned TikTok on government-issued devices and many universities, including the University of Texas at Austin, Auburn University and Boise State University, have blocked it from Wi-Fi networks. from campus. The app has already been banned for three years on US government devices used by the Army, Marine Corps, Air Force and Coast Guard. But the bans typically don’t extend to personal devices. And students often just switch to mobile data to use the app.
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Is Congress trying to ban TikTok?
Some members would like to. This week, the House Foreign Affairs Committee voted to approve a bill that could give a president the authority to ban the platform entirely. (Courts previously stopped an effort by the Trump administration to do this.)
In January, a Republican senator, Josh Hawley of Missouri, introduced a bill to ban TikTok for all Americans after pushing a measure, which passed in December as part of a spending package, that banned TikTok on all devices. issued by the federal government. A separate bipartisan bill, introduced in December, also sought to ban TikTok and target similar social media companies from countries including Russia and Iran.
What is the Biden administration doing?
It’s been mostly quiet, though the White House pointed to an ongoing review just this week, in response to questions about TikTok. TikTok has been in confidential talks for years with the administration’s review panel, the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, to address questions about TikTok and ByteDance’s relationship with the Chinese government and handling of user data. . TikTok has said it has heard almost nothing since it submitted a 90-page proposal in August detailing how it plans to operate in the United States while addressing national security concerns.
Can the government ban an app?
Most of the existing TikTok bans have been put in place by governments and universities that have the power to keep an app off their devices or networks.
A broader government-imposed ban preventing Americans from using an app that allows them to share their views and art could face legal challenges on First Amendment grounds, said Caitlin Chin, a fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. After all, a large number of Americans, including elected officials and major news organizations like The New York Times and the washington postnow produces videos on TikTok.
“In Democratic governments, the government can’t just ban free speech or expression without very strong, personalized reasons for doing so, and it’s just not clear if we have that yet,” Ms Chin said.
What happens if I already have TikTok on my phone when a ban is issued?
The exact mechanism for banning an app on private phones is unclear.
Ms Chin said the United States could block TikTok from selling ads or making updates to its systems, essentially making it unworkable.
Apple and other companies that operate app stores block downloads of apps that no longer work. They also ban apps that have inappropriate or illegal content, said Justin Cappos, a professor at New York University’s Tandon School of Engineering.
They also have the ability to remove apps installed on a user’s phone. “That usually doesn’t happen,” she said.
Determined users could also fight a ban by refusing to update their phones, “which is a bad ideasaid Professor Cappos.
What has been the response from TikTok?
TikTok referred to the bans as “political theater” and criticized lawmakers for trying to censor Americans. “The fastest and most comprehensive way to address any national security concerns about TikTok is for CFIUS to adopt the proposed agreement that we worked on with them for nearly two years,” Brooke Oberwetter, a spokeswoman for TikTok, said in a statement. On the other hand, TikTok has been trying to win allies, and recently made an unusual effort in Washington to meet with influential think tanks, public interest groups and lawmakers to promote the plan it presented to the government.
How are TikTok’s privacy and security issues different from those of Instagram, Facebook, or Twitter?
Chinese ownership seems to be the main problem.
Critics of efforts to ban the platform have pointed out that all social networks engage in rampant harvesting of their users’ data.
Fight for the Future, a nonprofit digital rights group, recently launched a #DontBanTikTok campaign with the goal of redirecting the attention of lawmakers on TikTok to creating data and privacy laws that would apply to all big tech companies.
“The general consensus from the privacy community is that TikTok collects a lot of data, but it’s not out of step with the amount of data collected by other apps,” said Robyn Caplan, a senior fellow at the Data & Society Research Institute. .
Who else is against a ban?
The American Civil Liberties Union sent a letter this week to the House Foreign Affairs Committee to protest his bill, saying the legislation would violate Americans’ First Amendment rights.
Of course, millions of Americans, digital creators, and marketers would hate to see the platform go away, and blocking a popular app could generate a political backlash among young people.
What can I do right now to protect my data if I use TikTok?
To protect your privacy on TikTok, you can use the same practices that are used to protect yourself on other social media platforms. That includes not giving apps permission to access your location or contacts.
You can also watch TikTok videos without opening an account.
What are other approaches besides a ban?
The administration could approve TikTok’s plan to operate in the United States. There is also the possibility that lawmakers will force ByteDance to sell TikTok to an American company, which almost happened in 2020.
