Might TikTok nonetheless face a ban within the US?
The Trump administration had sought to bully the app into US possession, or face a ban, again in 2020, as a consequence of issues over its potential hyperlinks to the CCP, however since then TikTok has been in a position to keep away from any main escalation in scrutiny, by working with US authorities on safety and transparency measures, within the hopes that it might be able to higher ingratiate it with key choice makers and officers.
However the prospect of a TikTok ban was raised this week, when TikTok COO Vanessa Pappas appeared earlier than a US Senate Committee Listening to into the impacts of social media on democracy, with numerous questions leveled at Pappas over TikTok’s connections, and obligations, to the CCP.
Pappas refuted most issues, and tactically averted sure components. However ultimately, questions nonetheless lingered about TikTok’s processes, and the way US consumer information may theoretically be fed by way of to the Chinese language Authorities by way of the app.
This additionally comes amid a broader crackdown on Chinese language tech funding exercise within the US.
As reported by The Wall Road Journal:
“The Biden administration is ordering a panel that screens international funding for nationwide safety dangers to intensify scrutiny of offers that will give China and different adversaries entry to crucial applied sciences or could endanger provide chains and private information.”
That transfer is essentially targeted on broader acquisition exercise by Chinese language tech firms, together with efforts by China-based traders to accumulate US semiconductor firms, which have ramped up in current occasions.
But it surely may additionally relate to TikTok, with regard to private information. And whereas this group might be taking a look at future funding, it appears possible that this might additionally sign a broader shift in focus inside US evaluation of all potential dangers on this respect.
For its half, TikTok says that it nonetheless working with US authorities to provide you with an answer that ‘will fulfill all nationwide safety issues’. That features transferring all US consumer information to Oracle information facilities within the US, which, in its view a minimum of, ought to alleviate issues about China-based workers accessing US consumer info.
However nonetheless, Pappas wasn’t precisely crystal clear on whether or not US consumer data might be shared past the platform:
“Pappas affirmed in Wednesday’s listening to that the corporate has stated, on report, that its Chinese language workers do have entry to US consumer information. She additionally reiterated that TikTok has stated it will “in no way … give that information to China” and denied that TikTok is in any method influenced by China. Nonetheless, she averted saying whether or not ByteDance would preserve US consumer information from the Chinese language authorities or whether or not ByteDance could also be influenced by China.”
Pappas additionally averted questions on CCP-aligned staffers working for guardian firm ByteDance, and what that would imply for a similar.
Ultimately, regardless of Pappas’ finest efforts, it wasn’t loads clearer the place TikTok stands with regard to US consumer information security, and what TikTok’s obligations could also be if the CCP had been to ask for such.
Which may nonetheless be a killer for the app. And with the Committee on International Funding in the USA (CFIUS) nonetheless conducting a safety overview of the app, and Meta utilizing its small military of lobbyists in Washington to proceed to seed doubt about its motivations and processes, it does appear that the specter of TikTok being banned within the US totally remains to be very actual, and looms as a authentic risk ongoing.
Proper now, nevertheless, it looks as if its destiny is essentially within the arms of the CCP itself.
India banned TikTok in 2020, as a consequence of ongoing border disputes with China, and it took that further battle, and escalation in exercise, to make Indian authorities lastly transfer to get rid of the potential menace that the app posed.
The US, already in an oscillating commerce battle with China, just lately raised tensions with the CCP additional by publicly supporting an impartial Taiwan. The Biden Administration has taken a totally different strategy to China than Trump did, however the strains are there, and tensions may escalate at any time.
And in the event that they do, then TikTok might be caught within the center, and banned in consequence – but when additional, broader battle might be averted, possibly TikTok can proceed to experience the road.
However that’s the place I’d be wanting. Proper now, the issues round TikTok are simmering, but when there’s a extra direct motive to take fast motion, that would occur, very quick.
