How TikTok got caught in a geopolitical storm
Originally published in Svenska Dagbladet on July 23, 2020 in Swedish as “Tiktok – mitt i konflikten mellan USA och Kina”
With over one billion users, TikTok has become the dominating social media phenomenon of 2020. But its recent exploding popularity has also caught the app in the political crossfire between the U.S. and China. American politicians are accusing China of using the app for espionage and are calling for a ban, and during the past month, they have become increasingly vocal.
At the beginning of the month, U.S. Secretary of State Michael Pompeo told CNN they were looking at possibly banning several Chinese social media platforms and singled out TikTok. Both the U.S. President Donald Trump and his Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, have publicly toyed with the idea of a U.S. ban. Several U.S. Senators and Congresspeople have also voiced similar sentiments.
The U.S. government is worried the Chinese company Bytedance, which is behind the popular video app, is sharing large amounts of user data with the Chinese government, and say that Tiktok can be used to spy on Americans. Since the beginning of the year, both the U.S. Army and Department of Homeland Security bar their employees from using the app – even on their private phones.
Justin Sherman is a cybersecurity and geopolitics expert with the Washington D.C. based think tank the Atlantic Council. He says “TikTok is the perfect example of the U.S. government’s worries surrounding Chinese tech” and that there are concerns Chinese censorship can be “exported” via platforms such as Tiktok.
“They see Beijing has its finger in each of these large tech companies, something they think creates national security risks,” Mr. Sherman explains, saying the U.S. concerns have been reinforced after recent developments.
The concerns are not unfounded. The Chinese government has for example repeatedly forced other social media platforms – most famously WeChat, the most popular messaging app in the country – to take down content critical against the Communist regime. Videos from anti-government protests in Hong Kong have been taken down from both TikTok and WeChat. Bytedance, TikTok’s Chinese owners, has repeatedly denied taking down anti-government content, and have turned down interview requests from SvD when asked questions on the matter.
Bytedance is walking a delicate tightrope walk. The company risks becoming the enemy of China, or the U.S. and Europe, depending on which path they might go down. Its allegiance was tested when China introduced its new security law in Hong Kong earlier in July. The law has been widely criticized by many observers, saying it decreases Hong Kong’s independence in legal and national security issues. In the end, Bytedance decided to remove TikTok from Hong Kong, replacing it with Douyin, the Chinese version of the app.
The move did not impress U.S. politicians, least of all Mr. Trump in the White House. The U.S. President has since his inauguration in January 2017 led a crusade against China. According to Mr. Trump, the increasingly important tech sector is just another front in the trade war with China and has repeatedly accused Chinese companies of stealing American intellectual property, such as patents. This attitude has reduced TikTok into a pawn in a larger geopolitical game.
“There is certainly, as anything with China and Chinese companies these days, a certain sense of bluster and hawkishness. But with that said, there are actual security risks,” says Mr. Sherman of the Atlantic Council. “These are real questions that should be asked because it’s a question of a country that is authoritarian and where there aren’t any checks and balances.”
Sarah Cook, senior analyst with Freedom House, an American non-profit, agrees. “I think the concerns are legitimate. Maybe we haven’t seen them with this particular app, but we’ve seen the Chinese government police other apps. They have ways to twist their arms,” says Ms. Cook and points to how the owners of WeChat, Tencent, repeatedly have capitulated to the will of Beijing.
“The burden is on TikTok right now. It’s because of what Alibaba and Tencent have done vis-à-vis the Chinese government the burden of proof is on them,” Ms. Cook explains.
As Tiktok’s influence has increased alongside its booming user numbers, calls for its ban – or at least investigations into the app – have increased. According to Ms. Cook with Freedom House, any actual ban of the app might be hard to implement due to freedom of speech laws. “You would have legal challenges in the U.S. due to the first amendment. Because how far do you balance censorship and other democratic values?” She does not rule out smaller bans, however, in groups such as the military or individual companies. In the end, TikTok still has long ways to go before it can prove itself safe, according to Ms. Cook. “There are a lot of unanswered questions and there is a need for more transparency from the company’s side. We need some real guarantees on Tiktok.”
