(Headline USA) In a move likely to stun millions of American users, the Senate followed through on a controversial ban of the China-run TikTok app.
The move had many conservatives split over concerns for national security in the face of all but certain espionage on one hand—not to mention the cultural rot that the platform fostered—while also presenting chilling implications, on the other hand, for government targeting of platforms such as Twitter or Truth Social.
Defenders of the TikTok ban say it won’t necessarily result in an immediate deplatforming. The measure gives TikTok’s Beijing-based parent company, ByteDance, nine months to sell the company, with a possible additional three months if a sale is in progress. If it doesn’t, TikTok will be banned.
Thus, it would be at least a year before a ban goes into effect—but with likely court challenges, this could stretch even longer, perhaps years.
“Rest assured, we aren’t going anywhere,” CEO Shou Zi Chew said in a video posted moments after President Joe Biden signed the bill on Wednesday.
TikTok has seen some success with court challenges in the past, but it has never sought to prevent federal legislation from going into effect.
Lawmakers from both parties—as well as law enforcement and intelligence officials—have long expressed concerns that Chinese authorities could force ByteDance to hand over data on the 170 million Americans who use TikTok.
The worry stems from a set of Chinese national security laws that compel organizations to assist with intelligence gathering—which ByteDance would likely be subject to—and other far-reaching ways the country’s authoritarian government exercises control.
Data privacy experts say, though, that the Chinese government could easily get information on Americans in other ways, including through commercial data brokers that sell or rent personal information.
Lawmakers and some administration officials have also expressed concerns that China may potentially direct or influence ByteDance to suppress or boost TikTok content that are favorable to its interests.
That includes promoting videos of negative content—such as transgenderism and LGBT issues—which have seen a staggering uptick among young people in America since the video-sharing platform took hold among U.S. teens and sowed in many the concept of gender dysphoria.
In China, by contrast, TikTok is used as more of an educational platform that has severe limits on entertainment content and promotes strongly postitive cultural values.
The platform also is being used in America to promote things such as illegal immigration and squatting, with criminals instructing others on how to get away with the activity. Some fear it may be an easy conduit to encourage illegal voting during the November illection.
TikTok, for its part, has denied assertions that it could be used as a tool of the Chinese government. The company has also said it has never shared U.S. user data with Chinese authorities and won’t do so if it’s asked.
Despite the compelling reasons for banning the platform, some have raised concerns that the House bill, as written, might open the door for the Biden administration to continue its ongoing effort at persecuting and, ultimately, silencing its political enemies.
After lobbying from conservative donor Jeff Yass, an investor in ByteDance, former President Donald Trump recently changed his position from supporting the ban to opposing it.
some have raised the alarm that the bill could empower the president or some other government entity to force the sale of other social-media platforms, simply by declaring them, arbitrarily and capriciously, to be a national security threat.
They worry the language in the bill did not carve out a sufficient exception for the reasons that TikTok was the exception to what should otherwise fall under the umbrella of First Amendment protections.
In particular, the Biden administration might use it to target Elon Musk over Twitter, or Trump himself over Truth Social. Leftists already have laid the foundation for attacks on both.
Musk’s acquisition of Twitter, with the promise of restoring free speech to it, left many on the Left—and in the deep state—chafing. Propaganda groups such as Media Matters have since claimed that Musk allows hate speech to flourish on Twitter and earlier encouraged advertisers to boycott the platform as a result.
As for Trump, the recent claims by former national security adviser Susan Rice accusing him of being a threat to national security may shed light on what may ultimately be the seed of a future Biden/Obama talking point, bearing close ressemblance to the Russia-collusion hoax that they previously devised to weaponize against him.
NEW NARRATIVE – TRUMP IS NATIONAL SECURITY RISK: Susan Rice (@AmbassadorRice) warns Americans against voting for Donald Trump because he's a national security risk: "Trump clearly doesn't put American interests ahead of his own, so we're deeply vulnerable to exploitation by our… pic.twitter.com/3MjM9zrJ4a
— Simon Ateba (@simonateba) March 21, 2024
TikTok, which is used by more than 170 million Americans, most likely won’t disappear from phones even if an eventual ban does take effect. But it would disappear from Apple and Google’s app stores, which means users won’t be able to download it. This would also mean that TikTok wouldn’t be able to send updates, security patches and bug fixes, and over time the app would likely become unusable—not to mention a security risk.
Teenagers are known for circumventing parental controls and bans when it comes to social media, so dodging the U.S. government’s ban is certainly not outside the realm of possibilities.
For instance, users could try to mask their location using a VPN, or virtual private network, use alternative app stores or even install a foreign SIM card into their phone.
But some tech savvy is required, and it’s not clear what will and won’t work.
More likely, users will migrate to another platform—such as Instagram, which has a TikTok-like feature called Reels, or YouTube, which has incorporated vertical short videos in its feed to try to compete with TikTok.
Trump warned as much when he came out opposing the ban, saying that it would ultimately benefit the the Mark Zuckerberg-owned Instagram.
Alphabet, the parent company of YouTube, is equally left-leaning and known for meddling in U.S. elections to benefit Democrats.
Often, such videos are taken directly from TikTok itself. And popular creators are likely to be found on other platforms as well, so users would probably be able to see the same stuff.
“The TikTok bill relies heavily on the control that Apple and Google maintain over their smartphone platforms because the bill’s primary mechanism is to direct Apple and Google to stop allowing the TikTok app on their respective app stores,” said Dean Ball, a research fellow with the Mercatus Center at George Mason University.
“Such a mechanism might be much less effective in the world envisioned by many advocates of antitrust and aggressive regulation against the large tech firms,” he added.
Adapted from reporting by the Associated Press
