제 22 호 TikTok Ban in the U.S.
Kicker: WORLD
TikTok Ban in the U.S.
by Si-ho Park, Reporter
With TikTok facing its biggest existential crisis in the U.S., the world has been in an uproar over this issue. TikTok supporters protested outside the U.S. capitol and countless TikTok-reliant brands, who have used the video app to boost their sales, were trembling with anxiety. Amid the controversy, a bill to ban the short-form video app, unless it does not sell to an American company, was finally approved. Opinions are still divided on whether this bill is really necessary for the national security of the United States, or if it is an excessive suppression of freedom of expression.
So why and how was the bill enacted? What changes will this make to TikTok users in the United States, TikTok, and other companies? Let's take a closer look at this issue.
https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20240426-the-ghosts-of-indias-tiktok-social-media-ban
Why and How Was the TikTok Bill Enacted?
The official name of the U.S. TikTok bill is “Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act.” As the name of the bill suggests, national security is the cause of the ban on TikTok in the United States.
Then, how is TikTok affecting the U.S. national security? Many in the U.S. voice concerns that ByteDance, the Chinese company that owns TikTok, is leaking sensitive dataof 150 million users in the U.S. They argue that ByteDance can hand over user information to the Chinese government based on Chinese law that allows the Chinese government to secretly demand data from Chinese companies and citizens for intelligence-gathering operations. They also worry that China could manipulate TikTok algorithms in content recommendations, fueling misinformation about the U.S. presidential election, the Israel-Hamas war, or any other crucial issues.
The TikTok bill was passed directly by the Senate on April 23, 2024, after the U.S. House of Representatives passed it by a landslide on April 13. The bill was finalized when President Biden immediately signed it on April 24.
TikTok’s Response and Effective Date of the TikTok Ban
The Chinese government and ByteDance are saying they will not sell TikTok, and TikTok released a statement on X. “This unconstitutional law is a TikTok ban, and we will challenge it in court,” the statement reads. “We believe the facts and the law are clearly on our side, and we will ultimately prevail.” The statement noted that the ban would “devastate seven million businesses and silence 170 million Americans.”
The original proposal gave ByteDance just six months to divest from its U.S. subsidiary, but negotiations lengthened it to nine. Then, if the sale is already in progress, the company will get another three months to complete it. Therefore, it would be at least a year before the ban goes into effect – but as it said directly, TikTok has sued the federal government, and it may take months or years to resolve the issue between TikTok and the U.S. government.
The Potential Impact on TikTok and Other Companies or Communities
As seen in the chart below, the United States is TikTok's biggest market, and if TikTok is banned in the U.S., the damage will be enormous. However, what makes the problem more serious is that this damage will not be limited to TikTok, and many companies and influencers who use TikTok as a marketing tool are also expected to suffer.
According to a March 2024 Oxford Economics report, which surveyed 1,050 small business owners and 7,500 TikTok users, over seven million businesses use TikTok to promote their products. More than half the respondents to the study said TikTok has helped them reach a new audience that they wouldn’t have otherwise been able to tap into, while 45% of those surveyed said a “meaningful portion of their business’ success and/or growth is directly attributable to their TikTok marketing efforts.”
Not only companies but also individuals are expected to be affected by the TikTok ban. TikTok is an essential place for marginalized groups, such as disabled people, or social issues, such as the Russia-Ukraine war, to get attention from many people. Disability rights activists are building a community and getting lots of support through TikTok. Also, Ukrainians are informing the situation in their country, expressing their hopes of stopping the war, and calling for U.S. and world attention and support by uploading a short video to TikTok. Thus, there are concerns that the U.S. TikTok bill will weaken their influence.
Countries with the largest TikTok audience as of April 2023 (in millions)
https://www.statista.com/statistics/1299807/number-of-monthly-unique-tiktok-users/
Precedent of India’s TikTok Ban
There are lots of controversies over this bill since the U.S. is an influential country, but the TikTok ban is not only implemented by the U.S. There are so many countries that have banned TikTok from the public sector or official devices, and India, which was one of the biggest markets of TikTok but banned it nationwide like the U.S., has drawn the most attention.
TikTok was one of India’s most popular apps until it was banned in 2020. There were 200 million TikTok users in India, but the border skirmish between China and India led the Indian government to ban the app. There was lots of backlash in India because TikTok was a channel for people with low socio-economic status to access news. However, with the TikTok ban, many Indian startups enjoyed new business opportunities. Of course, many alternatives such as Instagram Reels and YouTube Shorts already exist in the U.S., so this will not be the case in the U.S., but as many people are using TikTok, there are still many opinions that banning it violates freedom of expression.
Now, it’s your turn to think about it. Is the TikTok ban in the U.S. an overregulation that violates freedom of expression, or is it justifiably necessary for national security? Was there any other way to stop the leakage of information to China without banning it? I hope this article was an opportunity for the readers to learn a lot about this issue and think about it in various ways.
Sources:
https://www.nytimes.com/article/tiktok-ban.html
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/article/2024/may/05/tiktok-ban-algorithm-decline
https://www.euronews.com/next/2024/03/14/which-countries-have-banned-tiktok-cybersecurity-data-privacy-espionage-fears
https://edition.cnn.com/2024/04/25/business/bytedance-denies-reports-selling-tiktok-intl-hnk/index.html
https://apnews.com/article/tiktok-divestment-ban-what-you-need-to-know-5e1ff786e89da10a1b799241ae025406
https://time.com/6971589/tiktok-ban-creators-react/
https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20240426-the-ghosts-of-indias-tiktok-social-media-ban
