Why are politicians looking to ban TikTok?
While there have been security concerns over TikTok for a few years now, proposals to ban the app have been gaining traction within the last few months. Various government institutions, including the U.S., Canada, and the E.U. have already banned TikTok, or implemented plans to ban the app, on the basis of cybersecurity concerns. Currently, the ban is only restricted to state-owned/federal government devices, but some authorities are pushing for a nationwide ban.
Some countries have already imposed temporary bans, including Indonesia and Pakistan, on the basis of preventing immoral content from spreading. India currently has the longest standing ban of several Chinese-owned apps, including TikTok, over privacy concerns, following a border clash between Indian and Chinese troops in 2020.
While the data and privacy concerns have been ongoing, why are the proposals suddenly gaining traction now? U.S. government officials have been pushing for a ban in the name of national security concerns, growing weary of the app’s owner, ByteDance: a Chinese tech company. The proposals have turned into a bipartisan issue, as officials worry about the app sharing users’ data with the Chinese government. In the U.S.,the growing concerns came to a head following several news reports that ByteDance employees improperly accessed users' data. The New York Times reported that four employees were investigating the ‘...sources of suspected leaks of internal conversations and business documents to journalists.’ In doing so, the employees accessed IP addresses, and other data of two reporters and other users. Since then, the four employees responsible have all been fired, but the incident does not look good for TikTok.
Aside from potential privacy and data violations, government officials are also concerned for the type of content spread through the app. While the app is famous for catapulting teen dancers and makeup influencers into stardom, it has also shown its power in promoting harmful content. For example, domestic extremists were able to use TikTok to encourage people to storm the capitol on January 6th. There are also worries about TikTok’s censorship, particularly over moderators being instructed to censor posts mentioning Tiananmen Square and the Tibetan independence movement. Because TikTok’s algorithms to tailor a user’s For You page is so unknown, officials are worried about the potential threat that extremist content promoted on the app could pose to national security.
While many countries around the world are enthusiastically pushing for a ban, the U.K. does not quite seem as eager: yet. PM Rishi Sunak is definitely under pressure to instate a ban, especially after other Western nations have acted swiftly in banning the app late last year. While PM Sunak’s stance is that it is up to each individual and department to determine their own use of the app, others feel that his approach may leave the UK ‘marooned as a tech security laggard.’ Those against the ban argue that there is limited to no evidence to 'suggest that a ban is necessary.’ Professor Madeline Carr of UCL points to data violations of other platforms, including Facebook, WhatsApp and Uber, none of which were under the threat of an international ban.
With the sudden international push to ban TikTok, government officials have positioned their proposals as an urgent means to protect national security. While there is some merit to their concerns, for example worries about TikTok’s algorithms promoting harmful content, data collection is no new feat. Apps have been under intense scrutiny for their lack of transparency regarding their data policies. I think it’s safe to say that most users of apps like Instagram, Facebook, Uber, Google, and more don’t actually know how their data is being collected and shared, even though this information is so artfully detailed in the complex pages of the terms and conditions that certainly everyone reads before agreeing to sign up.
Considering a recurring pattern of murky data collection, some are pondering if these bans are an attempt to undermine the Chinese government. Regardless of the intention behind the bans, Is banning TikTok really the right move for global governments? Or can other measures be taken to improve privacy laws to protect citizens’ data?
