Geopolitics of the TikTok Ban
Carolina Beirne and Sharanya Swaminathan, 9/28/2020
Background & Causes
On August 6th, 2020, President Trump signed a set of executive orders that would prohibit American business with the Beijing-based company ByteDance which owns TikTok, a social media platform used by around 500 million people. It would also ban transactions with the app WeChat, which is owned by the Chinese conglomerate holding company Tencent. This would go in effect beginning September 20, after concerns related to national security in the United States. The Senate voted unanimously to ban TikTok from being used on government-associated devices.
ByteDance purchased Musical.ly in 2017, and rebranded it as TikTok. Since its launch, it has been downloaded over two billion times, building an entire community of young influencers and quickly becoming a global phenomenon. Many of them have built careers off of the app, building followers of over 80 million. In light of the ban, Microsoft quickly moved in to say that they would finish a deal with ByteDance to purchase TikTok. They are supposedly in talks to purchase the app in the U.S., Canada, Australia, and New Zealand, a deal that President Trump has expressed support for. The aim is to complete the deal by September 15, before the ban is instated. WeChat, which is a messaging and payments app, has gathered over a billion users. It is one of Tencent’s best investments, a company that has also invested in Reddit and the maker of Fortnite. The ban of WeChat stems from the concern that the administration has expressed, claiming that the Chinese government is monitoring the messages in order to track activity of Chinese nationals in the United States. As part of the ban, the White House prohibits “any transaction that is related to WeChat by any person, or with respect to any property, subject to the jurisdiction of the United States, with Tencent Holdings Ltd.” The ban has negatively impacted the company’s stocks. Tencent shares declined by 5.04% in Hong Kong soon after.
The president has ordered these bans with claims that both companies have allowed the Chinese government access to American data which can be used “track the locations of Federal employees and contractors, build dossiers of personal information for blackmail, and conduct corporate espionage." President Trump writes that this is a continuation of threats by China to national security and the economy of the United States. In the executive order banning the video-sharing app, Trump says that TikTok “may also be used for disinformation campaigns that benefit the Chinese Communist Party”. Tik Tok has replied by saying that any data from US users is stored in the US and a backup in Singapore, which means that the information is not subject to Chinese law.
TikTok has reported that they are “shocked by the recent Executive Order, which was issued without any due process.” ByteDance has tried to give the app more independence by hiring an American CEO and launching a job initiative based in the United States. Despite the concerns, they have firmly said “We’re not planning on going anywhere”. The tensions between the United States and China have been escalated by the declaration of this order.
ByteDance purchased Musical.ly in 2017, and rebranded it as TikTok. Since its launch, it has been downloaded over two billion times, building an entire community of young influencers and quickly becoming a global phenomenon. Many of them have built careers off of the app, building followers of over 80 million. In light of the ban, Microsoft quickly moved in to say that they would finish a deal with ByteDance to purchase TikTok. They are supposedly in talks to purchase the app in the U.S., Canada, Australia, and New Zealand, a deal that President Trump has expressed support for. The aim is to complete the deal by September 15, before the ban is instated. WeChat, which is a messaging and payments app, has gathered over a billion users. It is one of Tencent’s best investments, a company that has also invested in Reddit and the maker of Fortnite. The ban of WeChat stems from the concern that the administration has expressed, claiming that the Chinese government is monitoring the messages in order to track activity of Chinese nationals in the United States. As part of the ban, the White House prohibits “any transaction that is related to WeChat by any person, or with respect to any property, subject to the jurisdiction of the United States, with Tencent Holdings Ltd.” The ban has negatively impacted the company’s stocks. Tencent shares declined by 5.04% in Hong Kong soon after.
The president has ordered these bans with claims that both companies have allowed the Chinese government access to American data which can be used “track the locations of Federal employees and contractors, build dossiers of personal information for blackmail, and conduct corporate espionage." President Trump writes that this is a continuation of threats by China to national security and the economy of the United States. In the executive order banning the video-sharing app, Trump says that TikTok “may also be used for disinformation campaigns that benefit the Chinese Communist Party”. Tik Tok has replied by saying that any data from US users is stored in the US and a backup in Singapore, which means that the information is not subject to Chinese law.
TikTok has reported that they are “shocked by the recent Executive Order, which was issued without any due process.” ByteDance has tried to give the app more independence by hiring an American CEO and launching a job initiative based in the United States. Despite the concerns, they have firmly said “We’re not planning on going anywhere”. The tensions between the United States and China have been escalated by the declaration of this order.
The Geopolitics
In November of last year, following a U.S. national security investigation into ByteDance, Tiktok’s parent company, allegations were flying across the geopolitical spectrum that Tiktok was “compromised by the Chinese Communist Party.” (Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo.) As a result, an otherwise harmless social media app, where users can share their videos, has been dragged into politics and the geopolitical legality of user privacy.
TikTok’s database collects users’ internet address, location and browsing history; it can also store ages, phone numbers and payment information, but it requires users to opt-in to such collections and the Wall Street Journal claims that it collects less personal data than U.S. companies like Facebook or Google. This is pertinent in the minds of many people around the world, seeing as Mark Zuckerberg was called to testify in front of the U.S. senate for a similar accusation in 2018. “TikTok, like all social media companies, collects users’ data,” says, Zhao Lijian, a spokesperson for China’s Ministry for Foreign Affairs, and Tiktok is aware that, “there are that concerns because it is owned by a Chinese company, it will be difficult for company to refuse information requests from the Chinese government.” Lijian claims this is not the case, however, due to Tiktok’s data collection remaining less invasive than American-based companies.
Although TikTok has denied inappropriate collection on several occasions, Paul Spain, the chief Executive and futurist at Gorilla technology believes that these concerns about national security and privacy should be in the forefront of a government’s mind. This is especially important if one considers that Chinese companies are legally required to share information with the government when requested. In fact, on Tuesday, President Donald Trump said that America is considering a total ban on the app, with Mike Pompeo fearmongering the public by telling Americans to, “not use TikTok unless they want their data in the hands of the Chinese Communist Party.” This is where the tensions begin to arise on a geopolitical scale, as Zhao Lijian fired back with “some people in the U.S. [should] stop employing state power to oppress Chinese companies.” Lijian furthered this by accusing American companies as being a major threat, by insisting that, “the Chinese government always asks Chinese companies to observe laws and regulations when doing business overseas, so if we follow the logic of the U.S. side, can we say that American social media companies, with a large number of users globally, pose a grave security threat to all other countries in the word?”
According to C Raja Mohan, Director for the Institute of South Asian Studies at the National University of Singapore, “Trump now seems to have embarked on a more consequential mission at home to redefine ties between US and Chinese technology companies that flourished in recent years.” Trump’s mission to ban these apps has added to pre-existing tensions of the Chinese-American trade war, which President Trump instigated 2018, in an attempt to force China to absolve what he claimed was, “unfair trade practises.” This escalation of tension between China and America appears to run deep, as President Trump uses the fear of their, “communist regimes” basing from the Cold War speculations, and therefore promolugating the fears in order to attempt to justify their actions. However, there are calls from Tikok’s American user-base to ‘ban the ban,’ with claims of censorship and the obstruction of free media in America.
In conclusion, the geo-political tensions appear to only be continuing to rise, as President Donald Trump is perceived to be justifying his disdain for China and previous disagreements to launch yet another economic attack on the rising Eastern superpower, justifying it by empty claims of protecting his citizens.
TikTok’s database collects users’ internet address, location and browsing history; it can also store ages, phone numbers and payment information, but it requires users to opt-in to such collections and the Wall Street Journal claims that it collects less personal data than U.S. companies like Facebook or Google. This is pertinent in the minds of many people around the world, seeing as Mark Zuckerberg was called to testify in front of the U.S. senate for a similar accusation in 2018. “TikTok, like all social media companies, collects users’ data,” says, Zhao Lijian, a spokesperson for China’s Ministry for Foreign Affairs, and Tiktok is aware that, “there are that concerns because it is owned by a Chinese company, it will be difficult for company to refuse information requests from the Chinese government.” Lijian claims this is not the case, however, due to Tiktok’s data collection remaining less invasive than American-based companies.
Although TikTok has denied inappropriate collection on several occasions, Paul Spain, the chief Executive and futurist at Gorilla technology believes that these concerns about national security and privacy should be in the forefront of a government’s mind. This is especially important if one considers that Chinese companies are legally required to share information with the government when requested. In fact, on Tuesday, President Donald Trump said that America is considering a total ban on the app, with Mike Pompeo fearmongering the public by telling Americans to, “not use TikTok unless they want their data in the hands of the Chinese Communist Party.” This is where the tensions begin to arise on a geopolitical scale, as Zhao Lijian fired back with “some people in the U.S. [should] stop employing state power to oppress Chinese companies.” Lijian furthered this by accusing American companies as being a major threat, by insisting that, “the Chinese government always asks Chinese companies to observe laws and regulations when doing business overseas, so if we follow the logic of the U.S. side, can we say that American social media companies, with a large number of users globally, pose a grave security threat to all other countries in the word?”
According to C Raja Mohan, Director for the Institute of South Asian Studies at the National University of Singapore, “Trump now seems to have embarked on a more consequential mission at home to redefine ties between US and Chinese technology companies that flourished in recent years.” Trump’s mission to ban these apps has added to pre-existing tensions of the Chinese-American trade war, which President Trump instigated 2018, in an attempt to force China to absolve what he claimed was, “unfair trade practises.” This escalation of tension between China and America appears to run deep, as President Trump uses the fear of their, “communist regimes” basing from the Cold War speculations, and therefore promolugating the fears in order to attempt to justify their actions. However, there are calls from Tikok’s American user-base to ‘ban the ban,’ with claims of censorship and the obstruction of free media in America.
In conclusion, the geo-political tensions appear to only be continuing to rise, as President Donald Trump is perceived to be justifying his disdain for China and previous disagreements to launch yet another economic attack on the rising Eastern superpower, justifying it by empty claims of protecting his citizens.
