Why not? TikTok Ban Siege Spreads Around the WorldMarch 3 at 17:18

TikTok has more than 10 billion users worldwide. This video posting app operated by a Chinese company is being used more and more in Japan and the United States, mainly among the younger generation. However, on the other hand, in Europe and the United States, a siege network prohibiting its use is spreading, mainly among government agencies. In addition, the U.S. government has asked Chinese companies that operate TikTok to sell it to companies outside of China, or there have been reports that it could be banned from public use. Why do you want to eliminate a company's apps so much? Decipher the complex structure that can be seen beyond the app. (Los Angeles Bureau Reporter Nana Yamada / Network News Department Reporter Akira Ota)

Two-thirds of users are young

TikTok available in over 150 countries around the world.

It is a video sharing app operated by the Chinese company ByteDance.

In the U.S. alone, the app has been downloaded more than 2 million times, and Gen Z, a young man in their mid-teens to mid-1000s, accounts for about two-thirds of its users.

You may have the impression that many videos are centered on entertainment such as singing and dancing, but recently, channels on TikTok have appeared where young people of Gen Z explain history and politics, and channels that teach financial literacy such as how to use credit cards correctly.

As apps have become more prevalent, so have their uses.

Opening of the Transparency Center

As its popularity grows among young people, TikTok recently opened a new facility in Los Angeles, California.

The name of the facility is "Transparency Center".

It is a facility that explains how data management of apps is carried out, the company's privacy policy, how to manage posted content, etc., and was released to American media in February 2023.

A reporter from the Wall Street Journal, a leading American newspaper, said on his YouTube channel, "It was like a museum exhibition or a tourist information center in a national park."

TikTok Ban Siege Spreads

Meanwhile, in the United States, the siege of TikTok bans in government agencies and state governments is spreading rapidly.

Ban federal employees from using TikTok on work devices.

At the state level, such as South Dakota and Utah, more than half of the U.S. governments have banned the use of apps on state-provided devices.

It seems that there is a concern that users' personal information is leaked to the Chinese government through the app.

In addition, the ban movement is also in universities.

The University of Texas at Austin banned the use of apps while connected to the university's Wi-Fi.

On March 2023, 3, the Foreign Affairs Committee of the US House of Representatives finally passed a bill banning TikTok from the country, and if enacted, it could affect more than 1 million users.

The trigger was unauthorized acquisition of reporters' location information

Why is the movement to ban public institutions and universities spreading?

One of the alleged triggers is unauthorized access to data.

That came to light in late December 1.

Forbes, an American financial magazine, reported that ByteDance employees were trying to illegally obtain location data of multiple reporters covering TikTok.

The reporters were trying to identify which ByteDance employees they had contacted, i.e., the source of the interviews from their IP addresses.

ByteDance acknowledged this and fired the employees involved.

The ban has a political background

Despite the Forbes incident, there is no clear fact that the data of US TikTok users was actually leaked to the Chinese government as of March 3, when this article was written, and the company has consistently claimed that there is no interference from the Chinese government.

So why is the U.S. taking such a hardline stance on TikTok?

Anupam Chandar, a professor at Georgetown University who is an expert on international regulation in the technology sector, points to the political background.

Anupam Chandar, a professor at Georgetown University, said, "The U.S. has elections coming up in 2024,
and politicians want to show their hardline stance against China. Banning and restricting TikTok is not a decision made by the U.S. National Security Agency, it's a political decision."

Distrust of the National Intelligence Act

Even so, the risk of information leakage has been pointed out in the media in Europe and the United States.

The basis for this is the existence of a Chinese law called China's "National Intelligence Law."

According to Professor Chandar, the National Intelligence Law stipulates that "any organization or individual must cooperate with the intelligence activities of the state."

In other words, if the state asks you to hand over data, Chinese companies may not be able to resist.

While it is said that the user's address and occupation can be identified by analyzing location information and application usage history, there is a sense of crisis in the United States that if the personal information of important people of the US government and corporate executives is passed to the Chinese government and used for threats and other purposes, it will affect national security.

At a hearing of the US Congress held on March 2023, 3, FBI = Federal Bureau of Investigation Wray said about the dangers of TikTok, "It is a tool that is ultimately under the control of the Chinese government, and national security concerns are obvious," and also suggested that the Chinese government may conduct information operations to divide the United States over the Taiwan issue and other issues through the app.

Professor Chander says that this concern in the U.S. is currently only "hypothetical" "if the Chinese government asks ByteDance for information," but he doesn't expect the U.S. to weaken restrictions in the near future.

Professor Anupam Chander of Georgetown University:
"TikTok has taken measures such as storing data on the servers of Oracle, an American company, to prove that the data of American users is safe, but I think the only way to truly be accepted in the United States is to come out from the umbrella of a Chinese company."

Against the backdrop of political considerations, the TikTok siege network is steadily expanding in the United States.

On the other hand, even in Japan where there are many users, mainly among the younger generation, as in the United States, the variety of videos posted has been increasing recently, and the user base continues to expand.

Some companies expand their business on TikTok

TikTok launched the service in Japan in 2017.

Initially, the focus was on dance videos where you danced to your favorite music, but as the number of users increased, the genre of videos such as English conversation and cooking recipes expanded.

In particular, the number of companies that use it to expand their business has been increasing recently.

Restaurants in Shinjuku, Tokyo, started posting videos on TikTok in the spring of 2022.

The content of the video is a mini-control of the clerks.

I post tens of seconds of videos that make me laugh with themes such as "There is an izakaya".

At this store, the number of customers who come to the store after watching the videos posted is increasing, and when we recruited for part-time jobs, 500 people applied at once, so the company is feeling the effect.

Hironobu Sone, CEO
of FTT, which manages restaurants, said, "On social media, it is common to see posts from accounts that you follow, but on TikTok, many users watch videos displayed on the recommendation screen one after another, so the number of followers is not so important. If the reaction of people who see your video is good, it can go viral and be seen by many people. Each store has its own social media account, including Instagram and YouTube, and TikTok is important for new stores because it can make a big impact right away."

The ever-expanding Japan TikTok market.

Is there a possibility that measures such as banning use will be taken by the authorities like in the United States?

We interviewed the monitoring and supervision office of the national Personal Information Protection Commission, which investigates and provides guidance to companies when personal information is suspected of being leaked, but we could not hear specific stories because we could not respond to individual cases.

There is a risk of information leakage on all SNS

So, what do information security experts think?

We spoke with Professor Masakatsu Morii of Kobe University Graduate School.

In general, SNS can identify your home address, visits, and people you meet frequently by tracing your long-term behavior history from location information.

This can happen on any social network.

Professor Masakatsu Morii of Kobe University Graduate School:
"If the Chinese government requests TikTok to provide data based on the National Intelligence Law, location information and phone numbers may be provided to the government, and this risk is even higher than that of US-funded SNS. Therefore, even if personal information is leaked, the majority of users except government officials will not be greatly affected."

It's no secret that all social networking networks, not just TikTok, collect personal information.

Professor Morii points out that users must be aware that SNS is something that carries the risk of leakage.

On top of that, he says that it is necessary to improve IT literacy so that each person can decide for themselves whether it is okay to use it.

Among smartphones, the United States and China are fighting for supremacy

Regarding the situation in the United States, where a total ban on the use of the system is being discussed, Professor Morii pointed out that "there is a strong aspect of political appeal and it is unlikely to be realized," and that "there is no need for Japan to follow the U.S. movement."

Why is the United States, which has an easygoing impression of Japan who are rather sensitive to personal information, trying to shut them out first?

This is where we can see the essence of the struggle for supremacy between the United States and China.

China has built its own economic zone and aims to be a stronger country than the United States.

On the other hand, the Biden administration of the United States announced in October 2022 in its National Security Strategy that positions China as "the only competitor with the will and ability to change the international order" and intends to build deterrence.

Gone are the days when "politics" and "economy" could separate and seek affluence from the economic aspect, and the economy has become inseparable from politics.

Politics has accepted that the earnings of Chinese companies with smartphone apps will itself lead to "changing the international order", and I think it is leading to a major regulatory movement.

Will the United States or China take the lead in SNS with many users?

The struggle for supremacy in our smartphones is likely to continue in the future.

Los Angeles bureau reporter
Nana
Yamada joined Nagasaki Bureau
in 2009 After working in the Economic Department, International Department, etc., he is currently a member

Network News Department Reporter Akira
OtaJoined
Kobe
Bureau, Osaka Bureau, and Economic Department in 2012 before joining the current club in 2022