Why TikTok is at the center of the US-China dispute – 01/04/2023 – World

With over 1 billion users, TikTok has long ceased to be a viral dance platform. Created by the Chinese “application factory” ByteDance, it is one of the few social networks still expanding at a time when many large companies in the sector are cutting resources and employees. And it is at the center of the current geopolitical dispute, the Cold War 2.0 between the United States and China.

The American offensive against the application, which began during the Donald Trump administration, has reached unprecedented levels in recent weeks. On the one hand, it spread across the globe, with at least eight of the country’s allies banning access to the platform from government networks in March alone. On the other hand, the escalation of tensions between Washington and Beijing after the balloon crisis made American politicians radicalize their anti-China speech – which was evident in the real frying session of TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew in the US Congress.

Understand what is at stake in the dispute and its possible outcomes. The information comes from Fernanda Magnotta, coordinator of the international relations course at Centro Universitário Faap (Fundação Armando Álvares Penteado), and Luca Belli, coordinator of the Center for Technology and Society at Fundação Getúlio Vargas and professor at FGV Direito Rio.

What are the US charges against TikTok?

The US government has two major suspicions about the social network. The first is that it is used by the Chinese regime to spy on American citizens. Like other apps like Facebook and Instagram, TikTok collects all sorts of data from its users and uses that information to feed its algorithms. The difference is that ByteDance, which owns the app, is a Chinese company and therefore would be subject to a national security law that requires it to pass data to the regime if required.

The second suspicion is that TikTok’s video recommendation algorithm, known for its ability to retain users in an eternal loop, also has advertising purposes, influencing public opinion by promoting or suppressing strategic posts. Republican Senator Ted Cruz sums up this logic well — he has described the platform as “a Trojan horse that the Chinese Communist Party uses to influence what Americans watch, listen to and, ultimately, think.”

When did the US start going after TikTok?

In 2020, amid Trump’s siege of Chinese technology products. That year, the then president signed an executive order that required TikTok to sell its US assets. Otherwise, it would be banned from operating locally.

ByteDance even looked for an American buyer for the company at the time, but the decree was overturned in court and suspended by Joe Biden when he took over the Presidency. Last June, however, the Democrat published a new, broader executive order, calling attention to the dangers of foreign technologies to national security. Both decrees are part of a context of increasingly fierce competition between Washington and Beijing in the field of innovation.

At the end of February, amid discussions about banning the app from the territory for good, the US gave a 30-day deadline for its government agencies to delete TikTok from federal devices and systems.

Which countries have banned or limited the use of TikTok? Why?

The movement began with India, in 2020, during the escalation of tensions with the Xi Jinping regime on the Himalayan border. At the time, the country banned a number of Chinese apps, including TikTok. Pakistan has temporarily suspended the platform at least four times since October of that year for allegedly promoting “immoral content”. The Taliban banned the network in Afghanistan for similar reasons in 2022 — it is said to be “misdirecting youth”.

Between February and March of this year, a number of US allies began to suspend the use of TikTok for cybersecurity reasons. In their case, however, the prohibitions are limited to the use of the application in the public sector, on the grounds that politicians and civil servants have access to potentially sensitive information on their professional cell phones. The list includes Canada, Denmark, Netherlands, Latvia, Norway, United Kingdom, New Zealand and the main institutions of the European Union.

In addition to them, Belgium vetoed the platform on government members’ cell phones, but only for six months, and France banned not only TikTok but other recreational use apps, such as Instagram, Twitter and Netflix. Taiwan banned all Chinese-origin software late last year.

Do these suspicions make sense?

Yes and no. Magnotta, from Faap, explains that China uses advanced technologies to operate an extensive surveillance network. The regime claims its objective is to guarantee social stability and security for the population, but critics denounce the use of this network to silence dissent and practice censorship. The fear of many foreign governments that seek to limit the use of Chinese applications for cybersecurity reasons would therefore be that Beijing uses them to expand this practice beyond its borders.

At the same time, as Belli, from FGV points out, there is no evidence that the Chinese PC has requested access to information from TikTok users, and the application claims that even if that happened, it would refuse to do so. Meanwhile, there is abundant evidence that Washington has spied on its own citizens with the help of big tech, as shown by the revelations of former National Security Agency (NSA) technician Edward Snowden. Finally, in many ways TikTok has stricter self-regulation than social networks of American origin.

It is worth noting that the platform is not without controversy. In 2019, a report by the British newspaper The Guardian showed that she censored posts about the repression of the Tibetan independence movement and the Tiananmen Massacre, among other bloody chapters in Chinese history. The app claimed to have changed its method of moderating content since then.

In 2022, several American outlets revealed that ByteDance employees in China and the US had tracked journalists on their staffs to try to identify TikTok employees who were leaking information to the press.

What were the proposed solutions to the US dispute?

The US government has two paths ahead. One of them is to support an initiative that TikTok has already started to implement in the country, at a cost of US$ 1.5 billion (about R$ 7.6 billion). Called “Project Texas”, it would make the data produced by American users be restricted to their territory by being stored by Oracle, an American cloud software company. Employees and board members of the platform in the country would also pass through the federal scrutiny, in a degree of state supervision unimaginable in native social networks.

Another way is to veto the application, through the Legislative or the Executive. The White House has endorsed a bipartisan bill called “Restrict,” which would give the government the authority to compel foreign software to sell its assets or ban it if it is deemed a threat to national security.

At the same time, an agency linked to the Treasury Department issued a kind of ultimatum for ByteDance to sell its US assets. Separating itself from its parent company and cutting ties with China for good is seen as a last resort by TikTok.

Is “Project Texas” Enough to Protect US Citizen Data?

Yes, says Belli. Another valid option, for the researcher, would be for the US to create a unified data protection legislation, as the European Union, Brazil and China itself have. The bill would regulate access to US user information from all apps, not just foreign ones.

Can the US ban TikTok?

Yes, both by presidential decree and legislation passed by Congress. But both could be overthrown by Justice based on laws that guarantee freedom of expression.

Domestically, the US has the First Amendment. At the international level, the obstacle is the UN International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to which Washington is a signatory. It determines that States can impose restrictions on freedom of expression, as long as it is for a legitimate purpose and in accordance with the principle of proportionality. While national security is indeed a legitimate purpose, banning an app entirely is not considered proportionate.

What is China’s position in this dispute?

In general, Beijing understands the offensive against TikTok as part of a campaign to contain the expansion of its influence in the world, and vehemently denies that it has access to data from the application, which it defines as an entertainment platform without political ends.

The first time the regime spoke directly about a possible split between TikTok and ByteDance was when Shou Zi Chew testified before the US Congress. At the time, a spokesman for the Chinese foreign ministry said that Beijing was “firmly” opposed to its sale. This may indicate an obstacle to a possible negotiation, since ByteDance needs authorization from the regime to sell the application.

And what is the position of Brazil?

One of the countries with the highest number of TikTok users in Latin America, Brazil has never taken a position on the imbroglio, and traditionally tries to stay away from direct disputes between Washington and Beijing so as not to compromise its diplomatic and commercial relations with both nations. Often, however, it ends up being dragged into the middle of the conflict – this is what happened at the 5G auction in 2021, marked by a Washington offensive against the Chinese Huawei.