By: Lauren Lin, YLS ‘23
In the last couple years TikTok has been accused of censorship and providing data to the Chinese government, failed to close various deals, and gotten outright banned. Many argue that there are legitimate cybersecurity concerns regarding TikTok given its lack of transparency in how it collects and uses its data, as well as how it manages its content delivery—how big an influence the Chinese government has on TikTok and its parent company ByteDance are uncertain. In considering whether to institute a ban on TikTok, it is important to consider the security, political, and commercial concerns involved.
Security concerns
TikTok has raised many flags given just the amount of data it collects from its users. TikTok has facial and object recognition capabilities, power to track audio and browsing history of the user, and collects geolocation-related data as well as the user’s IP address. The fact that average users do not realize so much data is being taken is one thing, but perhaps the greater threat is that there is no transparency as to exactly how this data is being used. As a result, Senator Josh Hawley introduced a bill in March 2020 seeking to ban the federal government employees from using TikTok, claiming the level of data TikTok collects is an issue of national security. The fear is that TikTok has the capability of creating dossiers of information of people, which is particularly alarming for government employees but also for civilians who then work for the government in the future. This bill was reintroduced in April 2021.
In addition, China’s laws surrounding cyberspace remain ambiguous, and it is often unpredictable whether a policy is a suggestion or law. For example, in 2017 China introduced new cybersecurity laws that allow the Chinese government to request data from any Chinese company for intelligence reasons. It is believed that China is unable to maintain real-time access to data that Chinese companies collect and that requests follow a manual system. This leaves unclear whether companies can push back on these requests, and whether they would if presented with the opportunity. Each successive amendment to these cyberlaws remain unclear. Most recently, China has tightened its grip on its domestic tech companies including ByteDance, forcing them to adhere to stricter regulations.
However, despite these concerns over Chinese access to data, there is no consensus as to how great of a threat TikTok truly poses. TikTok has claimed that it has never sent data to China. The company also claims that its data has never even reached China, keeping U.S. data strictly in the United States. Therefore, there are no direct ties to the Chinese government when it comes to data collection.
Political Concerns
Platforms like Facebook possess the same capabilities of collecting data. It is TikTok, however, that is always discussed—as it is owned by a Chinese entity. That brings us to the next consideration in the TikTok debacle, which are the political concerns. Tense U.S.-China relations have taken center stage on the TikTok debate, where at times the debate over TikTok seems to stem beyond the data and security issues. TikTok has been accused of being a base for propaganda and censorship for China. For example, hashtag searches for #HongKongProtests in reference to the 2019-2020 protests in Hong Kong surrounding the anti-extradition bill received thousands of posts on Facebook and Twitter, yet on TikTok there was little to no content on these events. TikTok has also been accused of censoring any videos that touch upon Tiananmen Square or Tibetan independence. Lastly, China has in the past been accused of collecting bulk data in order to determine propaganda strategies, a policy that may or may not be used with TikTok’s data. The lack of transparency behind how TikTok decides which content to deliver to its users is another cause for suspicion—China could be playing a heavy hand in controlling TikTok’s content without anyone being able to tell.
Political issues have taken hold of TikTok in other countries as well. After a military clash with China regarding a disputed border issue in June 2020, India decided to ban TikTok along with many other apps as an act of defiance, claiming the apps were stealing data from its users. The reasoning for banning the apps? Security and data collection issues. A political move was hidden behind reasons of security.
Before leaving office, Trump attempted to ban TikTok two times, once in August 2020, and once in January 2021. In August, Trump stated that TikTok posed a national emergency which therefore allowed him to invoke the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA). This would allow Trump to prohibit transactions between the United States and a foreign nation in the name of an emergency. In January 2021, Trump issued an executive order banning apps like TikTok, which Biden has since temporarily suspended for further consideration. This brings us to the final factor in debating TikTok’s viability, which are the commercial considerations.
Commercial Concerns
TikTok has tried creating a subsidiary under the name of TikTok Global to be sold to companies like Microsoft, Walmart, and Oracle in order to keep viable TikTok’s global presence, but this comes with its own issues. Given the fact that the TikTok algorithm that decides which content is streamed on the app is created in China, and the fact that China’s branch of ByteDance operates an identical version of the app by the name of Douyin, it would be impossible to separate the two. Selling the company to a foreign entity would require selling it with the Chinese-created algorithm, and therefore the security issues would not disappear even if the company ends up in the hands of a foreign company. While TikTok presents an incredibly valuable opportunity for U.S. investors, it is interesting how security and political factors dominate an otherwise commercial transaction. As of April 2021, the deal with Oracle has been placed in limbo as the Biden Administration conducts a further review as to whether one, the deal can happen, and two, the commercial benefit of the deal would outweigh the supposed security concerns.
Conclusion
Given TikTok’s global reach and how deeply it has cut into the everyday life of civilians all over the world, it serves as a helpful case study of all the different factors that influence a piece of technology, social media, or algorithm’s viability in a foreign market, but it by no means will remain the only one. TikTok’s visibility on the global stage has highlighted the interconnected and complex ways in which tech companies have to navigate today’s world; it is not merely a matter of national security, but also political and commercial concerns. This is helpful to understand as other tech companies find themselves subject to the same considerations, getting banned in various countries, and having their efforts scrutinized. It will be interesting to see how this situation with TikTok will resolve, and what precedent that will hold for all tech startups in China seeking to achieve a spot in the global limelight as well.