By Amelia Duarte de la Rosa
Writing in North America
President Joe Biden indicated in mid-February that he had not yet made a decision to ban its full use in the United States, and gave assurances that he does not use the application developed by Chinese tech giant ByteDance. “I don’t have it on my phone,” he responded to press questions at the White House.
But Biden’s rhetoric regarding TikTok has its ups and downs, as it was himself who, months after taking office, revoked his predecessor Donald Trump’s (2017-2021) banning order against that social network.
TikTok is an application that allows you to record, edit and share short music videos and greatly exceeds the time spent on it compared to other social networks, since users spend an average of 29 hours per month on it, according to the Statista portal.
It currently has more than a billion active users worldwide and more than 100 million of them in the United States, which is why it is considered one of the most popular applications in this country, even though they are trying to ban it.
CRUSADE AGAINST TIKTOK BY CONGRESS
The ongoing obstruction of the global short-video platform by governors and state agencies extends to both Republican- and Democrat-run regions across the country, according to CNN.
This evolution of the ban began in mid-December when the Senate unanimously passed legislation banning the app from being used on state phones and devices.
Previously, 13 Republican-led state governments had restricted use of the app, and universities in Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Georgia and Iowa also announced bans on official devices. Dubbed the “No TikTok on Government Devices Act,” the bill, introduced by Republican Senator Josh Hawley, would make it impossible for anyone associated with the government to download or use the social network on a device owned by the United States or any governmental entity.
“States are banning TikTok on government devices, and it’s about time Joe Biden and the Democrats help do the same,” Hawley said in a statement, calling it a “major security risk to the United States.”
Also, Republican Mike Gallagher, one of the top anti-China voices in Congress, told NBC News that the network was “digital fentanyl,” a clear analogy to the drug that causes thousands of overdose deaths in the United States. In Texas, Gov. Greg Abbott has ordered state agencies to shut down TikTok amid security threats.
Another similar proposal, authored by Senator Marco Rubio, also seeks to prevent the application from working within the country.
In a letter to Senate Democratic Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, the Republican congressman asserted that “the Chinese Communist Party is using TikTok as a Trojan horse that acts as an application that purports to entertain, but to monitor, track, and inform Americans collect.”
However, the project does not yet have a date on which it must be voted on, approved by the House of Representatives, and then signed by President Biden to become law, but the ban has already spread to almost the entire nation.
UNITED STATES PROVOCATIONS
The crusade against TikTok stems from an executive order issued by Trump aimed at banning new downloads of the popular Chinese app.
But in July 2021, the current president rescinded Trump’s order, despite calling for a Commerce Department review to identify the alleged security risks they pose to citizens.
Meanwhile, in mid-2022, the currently most popular social network found itself once again amid provocations by the United States against China after the Senate Intelligence Committee asked it to be investigated over alleged espionage and data leaks in favor of Beijing. .
Last November, lawmakers from the Republican Party accused the platform of providing “false or misleading” information about its uses of user data.
In a letter to the social network executive director Shou Zi Chew, Republicans asked the executive branch to release a series of documents, electronic records and communications related to the location tracking of users in the United States.
The request stemmed from a briefing in September, when TikTok claimed it wouldn’t track consumers’ internet data while they weren’t using the app. Additionally, it stated that its China-based employees do not have access to US subscribers’ data.
However, lawmakers assure that the claims made by the social network representatives “appear misleading”. They also requested any drafts of an agreement with the Biden administration that would allow TikTok to operate within the United States.
For its part, the FBI raised concerns about the possibility that TikTok could be used by Beijing for spy work, in a clear anti-Chinese position. Federal agency chief Christopher Wray hinted in November 2022 that Beijing has the ability to control the app’s algorithm.
In his opinion, this leaves US users vulnerable to a government “that does not share our values and whose mission is totally at odds with the best interests of the United States”.
TIKTOK ANSWER
In the face of these attacks from the United States, a spokesman for the platform expressed to CNN “disappointment that so many states are jumping on the bandwagon to enact policies based on baseless and politically charged untruths about TikTok.”
“It’s unfortunate,” added the spokesperson, “that many government agencies and universities can’t use the app to build communities.”
Parent company ByteDance argues that the FBI’s warnings about the app are purely hypothetical and provide no evidence of wrongdoing.
According to various press reports, TikTok and the Biden administration were close to reaching an agreement that would have imposed strict security measures for users’ data in the northern country through the United States Committee on Foreign Investment (Cfius, for its acronym in English) .
But negotiations stalled, particularly over Wray’s statements. TikTok at all times categorically denies that the Chinese government exercises any such influence.
However, with the House of Representatives under Republican control and a more pronounced and prominent anti-China movement, expect more pressure on Biden to ban TikTok federally, despite its popularity in the United States.
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