By: Samantha Sonnet & Ashley Offman

INTRODUCTION

As previously foreshadowed by Samantha in an article written in July of 2023, TikTok: Opportunity and Risk, TikTok has been under a microscope from governments across the globe for quite awhile. The analysis provided in her article is still relevant today given the recent vote to ban TikTok, and the United States House moving forward to force Chinese state-owned TikTok company ByteDance to sell their ownership of the U.S. version of TikTok, or lose access to the United States TikTok market. To fully understand the situation, this article will recap TikTok’s controversial Privacy Policy and the 2023 testimonies, and also discuss the current governmental situation surrounding the ban. 

RECAPPING THE CONCERNS ABOUT TIKTOK

It is no secret that there are significant controversies surrounding TikTok, including biased algorithms, censored content, and extensive personal data collection that have direct implications for arts organizations, the wider arts industry, and TikTok users in general. 

Key points in the article include:

• Data Privacy and Ethical Concerns: TikTok's use of data collection and its algorithm raise concerns about privacy, especially given the app's popularity among younger audiences. This presents a potential legal and assuredly ethical decision to arts marketers who need to consider the broader implications of using TikTok for engagement. While the platform offers unparalleled access to a vast, diverse, and young audience, ethical, privacy, and security concerns present significant challenges. Arts organizations must weigh the benefits of using TikTok against the potential risks and controversies associated with the platform and the opportunities for video on other channels (Instagram and YouTube, most notably).

• U.S. Government Scrutiny: The U.S. government has expressed concerns over TikTok's Chinese ownership and the potential for data privacy breaches and state-based surveillance; they consider the app a national security threat. Despite TikTok's efforts to mitigate these concerns by storing U.S. user data on domestic servers and the CEO’s repeated testimonies in front of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, evidence has mounted that data leaks have happened, and the debate continues about the app's safety and the possibility of a ban.

• Algorithmic Impact: TikTok's highly personalized "For You Page" (FYP) algorithm demonstrates the platform's capability to engage users effectively but also raises questions about the psychological and social impact of such targeted content. Critics argue that the algorithm could lead to negative outcomes by promoting addictive behavior or exposure to harmful content. Additionally, TikTok faces accusations of censoring marginalized groups and inconsistently applying its content moderation policies, further complicating its public image.

• International Responses: Other countries have also responded to TikTok's security risks with various bans and restrictions, especially on government-issued devices. Notably, individual states in the U.S. have done the same. TikTok has attempted to reassure the public and governments of its commitment to data security and privacy through partnerships and updated data management practices.

TikTok's Privacy Policy, as written about in the previous article and updated on May 22, 2023 (NOTE: the following addresses the core policy in May 2023, and TikTok just released an update on January 24, 2024), reveals a comprehensive collection of user data, including account information, user-generated content, messages, clipboard contents, purchase information, contacts, and details from third-party services and other sources. It details an extensive range of information TikTok collects, from basic profile details to data from advertisers and third-party services, raising additional concerns about user privacy and data protection. The app's widespread popularity, especially during the pandemic, contrasts with increasing government scrutiny and potential bans on the platform, which could affect users, content creators, and marketers who have come to rely on TikTok for entertainment, community, and business outreach. The debate over TikTok encompasses concerns over privacy, national security, censorship, and the economic and cultural impact of banning the app, highlighting the complex interplay between technology, government regulation, and user rights in the digital age.

UPDATE 2024: U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TAKES ACTION

The House’s vote to pass the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act acts as an ultimatum delivered to the Chinese government: sell the application to a U.S. company within six months or be blocked from devices in the U.S as well as app stores. The bill was passed on March 13, 2024, to overwhelming bipartisan support (352-65). Led by Rep. Mike Gallagher (who will be resigning April 19), the bill cites the prohibition of:

“distributing, maintaining, or providing internet hosting services for a foreign adversary controlled application (e.g., TikTok). However, the prohibition does not apply to a covered application that executes a qualified divestiture as determined by the President. Under the bill, a foreign adversary controlled application is directly or indirectly operated by (1) ByteDance, Ltd. or TikTok (including subsidiaries or successors that are controlled by a foreign adversary); or (2) a social media company that is controlled by a foreign adversary and has been determined by the President to present a significant threat to national security. The prohibition does not apply to an application that is primarily used to post product reviews, business reviews, or travel information and reviews.”

The bill itself is heavily focused on TikTok, and it is the only platform to be named in the bill. A companion bill, the Protecting Americans’ Data from Foreign Adversaries Act was passed unanimously in the House, would prohibit, upon passage in the Senate: “a ​​data broker to sell, license, rent, trade, transfer, release, disclose, provide access to, or otherwise make available sensitive data of a United States individual to— (1) any foreign adversary country; or (2) any entity that is controlled by a foreign adversary.” The bill continues to define control by a foreign adversary as “an entity with respect to which a foreign person or combination of foreign persons [...] directly or indirectly own at least a 20 percent stake.”

While the 170 million casual users of TikTok and the marketing industry as a whole struggle to fathom a world without the app, the reality is that several lighter bans have already been put in place for government-owned devices by Congress and 34 states, as well as various public universities. Additional pushes to ban the application for larger subsets of the US population have been blocked, such as the 2023 proposed ban in Montana, which was cited to “overstep state power and infringes on the Constitutional right of users and businesses.” Other countries have also banned the application entirely, including fifteen European Union countries. 

This legislation is not the first to concern ByteDance’s relationship with China or the United States; the Trump administration attempted to pass two executive orders in 2020 on this issue. The first was to ban TikTok, which was blocked and replaced by the Biden administration, but the second, which aimed to force divestiture, has been effectively replaced with the current legislation at hand. American lawmakers are growing increasingly concerned about national security threats, particularly those coming from China, but to date, there have been no publicly shared national security incidents that have emerged about TikTok, although the FBI held a press conference announcing the potential. 

While TikTok’s CEO Shou Zi Chew has unequivocally denied claims that the Chinese government could use it as a tool to spread propaganda or that ByteDance has ties to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), a March 2024 report released by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) alleges that the application has been used by the Chinese government to “sow doubts about U.S. leadership, undermine democracy, and extend Beijing’s influence,” with the specific example of propaganda accounts run by the People’s Republic of China running online influence and disinformation campaigns to affect the results of the 2022 United States midterm campaigns. An unnamed U.S. intelligence officer stated that “the intelligence community can’t rule out that China would use TikTok to try to influence the 2024 U.S. elections, but the IC has no indication that they intend to do so.” 

Some discrepancies have risen about Tiktok and ByteDance’s relationship to China. A common misconception is that the CCP has an impact on TikTok’s daily operations and has the ability to send messages to the U.S. through the app. Because ByteDance is Chinese-owned, it has a legal requirement to establish an in-house Communist Party committee composed of employees who are party members, not by external party members. The government also owns 1% of the Beijing Douyin Information Group (ByteDance’s domestic subsidiary), but Chew as well as the TikTok site have elaborated that this “golden share” only serves the purpose of internet licensing. ByteDance has maintained that it is a common arrangement for information platforms in China and only affects Chinese operations. 

Since 2022, TikTok’s initiative Project Texas has kept all data from U.S. users new to the app as of October of the same year in domestic data warehouses connected to Oracle and managed by American employees. TikTok has spent more than 1.5 billion dollars on U.S. data security. The concerns over the application’s ties to China have seemed to overshadow some of the other pressing issues that surround TikTok and other social media platforms. In January of 2024, X CEO Linda Yaccarino, Snapchat CEO Evan Spiegel, Discord CEO Jason Citron, TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew, and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg testified in a Senate hearing concerning the safety of children that use each of these platforms, including their use to distribute child sexual abuse material (CSAM) and their overall impact on the mental health of its young users. Mr. Chew has maintained that TikTok is not a harmful app for children, affirming that: “as reflected in the Community Guidelines, youth safety is a priority. We do not allow content that may put young people at risk of exploitation or psychological, physical, or developmental harm.” TikTok has been pointed to as the root of mental health issues in teens and adolescents, with consequences of both exploitation and cyberbullying ranging from depression to suicide. Beyond exploitation, TikTok “challenges” were highly popular in the app’s U.S. surge from 2020-22, and were a near-surefire way to get content through the algorithm. However, recent TikTok challenges have proven deadly, with examples like the blackout challenge contributing to more than 20 deaths in 2022.

TikTok has aimed to make its stance on the ban known, with users in the United States receiving a direct call to action to call their senators, as well as ads being run to highlight the small businesses that may be negatively impacted by a loss of income resulting from publicity they receive on the platform. TikTok uses the algorithm deliberately to push a newly released Oxford Economics report onto audiences that illustrates the economic boost the app (including its built-in shopping feature) has had on the GDP of the United States. The app frames the ban as a loss of “your right to self-expression and the communities you love.” Gen Z has been a fervent user and supporter of TikTok, with social media influencers taking steps to advocate for the platform that created their career and citing that the priorities in Congress should be elsewhere. James Charles, a well-known beauty influencer, said on the GLAAD Media Awards red carpet: “We’re starving. People are dying. People are in jail for marijuana charges. We’re in a war that we should not be in...and TikTok is our most pressing concern? I don’t think so.”

It is notable that the messaging that U.S. consumers are seeing does not even show divestiture as an option, aligning with China’s stance on possible U.S. actions. Spokespeople for the Chinese government and ByteDance have maintained that a sale of TikTok would be blocked by China as any sale procedures, including the sale of ByteDance’s algorithms that have led to the platform’s success, must be regulated by the highly-controlled government regulations on data sharing. This allows China to have the power of veto over the application’s future should the bill continue to pass through the Senate and the President’s desk. For American users, this means that a ban is much more likely than divestiture, and if the bill passes, consumers must prepare to conduct their affairs elsewhere.

WHAT’S NEXT?

The bill’s next big hurdle in terms of the United States government is to go through the Senate; but senators and the legislative process are pumping the brakes. “‘The nice way to put it is there’s a very large backlog of legislative priorities making their way through the Commerce Committee,’ said one corporate and political consultant whose clients routinely face the panel’s scrutiny, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to candidly discuss the dynamics. ‘Whether the TikTok legislation would make its way through the Commerce Committee in 2024 would very much remain an open question.’”

Without the lead representative who presented the bill in the first place, the bill may lose its momentum. While the future of TikTok remains uncertain in the United States, users who are concerned about what elements of their data are available on the platform can request a copy or request that it be deleted. In the meantime, consumers remain in a holding pattern, with TikTok placing pressure on its users to urge their senators to keep the app afloat.