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TikTok soon to be banned in the United States?
What you need to know about the project that threatens the Chinese platform
The House of Representatives is due to consider this week a bill requiring ByteDance, the parent company of TikTok, to sell the application, otherwise it would be banned in the United States.
Explanation.
The short video platform TikTok is now used by 170 million Americans.
Photothek via Getty Images - Thomas Trutschel
By: François-Damien Bourgery Follow
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Tick tock, tick tock… Are TikTok
’s days
in the United States numbered?
Thursday, March 7, the Energy and Commerce Committee of the House of Representatives unanimously approved a bipartisan bill that would force ByteDance, the Chinese parent company of the famous social network, to cede capital control in a deadline of 165 days.
Otherwise the app would be removed from mobile app stores in the United States.
The text is due to be examined in plenary session this week.
The White House has already announced
its intention to sign it if it is adopted by Congress.
“
This proposed law has a predetermined result: a total ban on TikTok in the United States
,”
denounced the social network
.
The very morning of the committee hearing, users of the platform saw a message displayed on their home page encouraging them to prevent this “closure” by putting pressure on their representatives in Congress.
“
Congress plans to completely ban TikTok.
Speak out now, before Congress strips 170 million Americans of their constitutional right to free speech.
It will harm millions of businesses, destroy the livelihoods of countless creators across the country, and deprive artists of their audiences.
Let your representatives in Congress know what TikTok means to you and tell them to vote no
,” it read.
The effect was immediate.
Parliamentarians reported experiencing a deluge of phone calls from people of all ages, some being particularly virulent.
“
Here you have an example of an application controlled by an adversary who lies to the American people and who interferes with the legislative process of Congress
,” responded Republican Mike Gallagher, co-author of the text with Democrat Raja Krishnamoorthi.
“
We clearly see why the Chinese Communist Party wants to keep TikTok,”
said the latter:
for its ability to target Americans, spread fake news and relay CCP propaganda.
»
■ What is TikTok accused of?
US lawmakers cite threat to national security.
They say they fear that personal data collected by TikTok will be used by Chinese intelligence.
Like Facebook, Instagram, X or YouTube, TikTok collects information in exchange for free services which it uses for commercial purposes.
But unlike its competitors, the short video platform is owned by a Chinese company, ByteDance, which the American authorities accuse of cooperating with the communist regime.
Accusations fueled by a law of June 2017 which obliges Chinese companies to collaborate with Beijing's intelligence services, but which for the moment have not been supported by tangible evidence.
TikTok may repeat that its headquarters is based in Singapore, that the data of its American users is not stored in China, but in the United States or Singapore, and that its Chinese employees cannot have access to it, nothing done there.
Its attempts to show credentials were undermined in December 2022,
when ByteDance admitted
to having fired several of its employees in China who had used this personal data to spy on journalists who were investigating the company, in order to identify their sources.
American authorities also fear that Beijing will use the highly addictive social network for disinformation purposes.
They also evoke a danger for the mental and physical health of the youngest, first users of the application.
Also read: TikTok: a social network even more dangerous than Facebook, Instagram or Twitter?
■ Is this charge against TikTok unprecedented?
Threats to ban TikTok in the United States are not new.
In August 2020, the
Trump administration had already ordered ByteDance
to sell TikTok's American activities for the same reasons as those given today.
At the time, Microsoft was positioning itself to buy them.
The American press had estimated the operation between 10 and 40 billion dollars.
This charge by the American authorities triggered a legal standoff which Joe Biden put an end to the following year by canceling the decree taken by his predecessor.
His decision was interpreted as a gesture of appeasement towards Beijing.
Several bills have since been submitted to Congress, without any success.
■ Is a ban on TikTok really possible?
Such a ban would not be a first.
In June 2020,
India banned TikTok domestically
, along with 58 other Chinese mobile apps, arguing that they violated Indian sovereignty by illegally transferring personal data abroad.
The decision followed the death of 20 Indian soldiers in fighting with the Chinese army in the Himalayas.
With 120 million users, the country then represented the platform's largest market outside China.
Last November, Nepal made the same decision, saying it harmed “
social harmony
”.
In the United States, although the bill has a good chance of being voted on in the House of Representatives, its future in the Senate remains more uncertain.
Especially since opponents of the text accuse it of being contrary to the Constitution, and in particular to the first amendment relating to freedom of expression.
Last November, a federal judge suspended
the ban on TikTok in Montana,
where it was to come into force on January 1, while waiting for the case to be judged on the merits.
He said the company had a good chance of winning its case against the state of Montana because the measure violated the First Amendment and the right to get information online.
For now, measures taken in many countries against the Chinese app are limited to banning officials from using the app.
This is the case in the United States, Australia, the United Kingdom, Belgium, Canada, but also
within the European Commission
.
■ What do Joe Biden and Donald Trump say?
Even if the White House shares legislators' fears about the dangers that TikTok represents for national security, Joe Biden's campaign team has invested in the social network with a view to the presidential election.
His account was officially launched on February 11 during the Super Bowl.
Objective: reach young voters, while a study by the Pew Research Center,
relayed by the information site Axios
, reveals that nearly a third of Americans aged 18 to 29 get their information via TikTok.
The video, titled “Lol hey guys”, has so far totaled almost 10.5 million views.
For his part, after having wanted it banned four years ago, Donald Trump now says he is opposed to it.
The Republican candidate for the White House believes that such a ban would help Facebook, which he accuses of having cheated during the last presidential election.
“
If you get rid of TikTok, Facebook and Zuckerschmuck will double their revenue
,” he said on his social network Truth.
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