Are Social Media Apps Like TikTok the Next Front for Tensions Between China and The West?

Countries across the globe are banning the use of TikTok, a social media app owned by Chinese company ByteDance amidst a host of privacy and security concerns.[1] The United States,  which has banned use of the app on government devices[2] and is now considering legislation to ban the app entirely, is leading the push. NATO and the European Union have followed, citing similar security concerns with the app.[3] Moreover, several other countries are enacting such bans, including Britain, France, Australia, and Canada.[4] Meanwhile, TikTok’s global reach is only increasing; the app has more than 1 billion users and was the most downloaded non-gaming app in 2020.[5]

Social media bans are nothing new.[6] In fact, China has banned Facebook and Twitter, both American owned companies, since 2009.[7] Iran, North Korea, and Turkmenistan also ban Facebook and Twitter.[8] If you begin to map the banning of popular social media apps, a familiar pattern of geopolitical division begins to appear. 

Countries eyeing and executing Tiktok bans cite national security concerns as the primary reason for their escalating actions.[9] For example, in France, recent efforts to limit access to Tiktok were explained by French officials as necessary to “guarantee the cybersecurity of our administrations and civil servants.”[10]

However, while certain nations are particularly concerned with TikTok’s data-tracking practices, a 2022 report found those practices are comparable to other big social media companies.[11] Specifically, like many other social media, the app collects information about users online and offline activities, including “your location, what other websites you’re visiting, and what links you click on.”[12] This data collection allows tech companies to aggregate user data and create profiles, which are used to target ads to particular subsets of users.[13] Yet, while most of this behavior is typical across all the big Tech companies, researcher Felix Krause recently discovered code within TikTok could also record the keystrokes a user types into the app’s internal web browser, including passwords.[14]

Nations calling for a TikTok ban are less concerned about the collection of data and more concerned about the Chinese government’s ability to access those data.[15] Officials are particularly concerned that under Chinese law, ByteDance, the Chinese company that owns TikTok, could be ordered to turn over the user data from TikTok.[16] That’s because Chinese law “requires Chinese companies and citizens to assist with Chinese intelligence work.”[17] Specifically, a 2017 law requires companies to turn over any personal data that is relevant to China’s national security.[18] TikTok executives insist that Americans’ data is not subject to Chinese laws.[19] Nevertheless, experts say companies like ByteDance would be forced to comply if the government made such a request.[20]

Still, with or without TikTok, there’s a global market for user data.[21] Estimations indicate  the leading brokers of these sorts of user data have up to 1,500 pieces of information about the average American.[22] And, detailed profiles of individuals are for sale to domestic and foreign entities alike.[23] Which begs the question, are these bans truly an effort to increase security or a result of escalating tensions between China and the West? After all, the call for the bans coincides with the use of several Chinese spy balloons over the United States and the development of an increasingly warm relationship between China and Russia.[24]

Weaponizing social media bans as a proxy for actual conflict between nations is not unprecedented.[25] For example, India’s ban on TikTok predates any of the current chatter about bans, as it banned the app almost three years ago following a deadly exchange on the India-China border.[26] Perhaps app bans operate more like constructive economic sanctions—a way for countries to attempt to demonstrate their dissatisfaction with one another without escalating to open, direct conflict.

That said, officials outside of China raise other concerns with the app as well, including the possibility that China could intervene in Titktok’s operations to influence users abroad through both propaganda and censorship.[27] These concerns, though perhaps not unique to TikTok,  ring true given the way many social media platforms struggled to contain misleading content in the run-up to the 2020 United States Presidential election.[28] For example, researchers recently demonstrated Facebook failed to control political misinformation in the United States, fueling the violence of Jan. 6, 2021.[29]

So, are bans really the solution? China certainly does not think so—at least in this case.[30] A spokesperson for the Chinese Embassy in Washington asked to comment on the unfolding kerfuffle concerning TikTok said that the United States, “under the pretext of national security,” “frequently used state power to unreasonably suppress” foreign-owned companies.[31] However, beyond the digital saber-rattling between nations, there are several concerns countries would need to consider before implementing a sweeping ban. First, a broad government-imposed ban would be difficult in democratic governments, as nations often have laws that prohibit the government from banning free expression without “very strong and tailored grounds to do so.”[32] Second, the Johannesburg Principals on National Security, Freedom of Expression, and Access to Information requires that a restriction on information be grounded in a legitimate national security rationale.[33] For the rationale to be legitimate, a government must be able to show an interest with “genuine purpose and demonstrable effect is to protect a country’s existence or its territorial integrity against the use or threat of force.”[34] Moreover, the restriction to be “imposed is the least restrictive means possible for protecting that interest.”[35] Third, the Siracusa Principles on Limitation and Derogation Provisions in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights prohibit using national security “as a pretext for imposing vague or arbitrary limitations and may only be invoked when there exist adequate safeguards and effective remedies against abuse.”[36] Taken together, these values make it difficult to imagine democratic governments authorizing such a ban.[37]

Alternatively, American officials, including both the Biden and Trump administrations, have called for ByteDance to sell TikTok to a non-Chinese company.[38] However, ByteDance would need the Chinese government’s approval for such a sale, which seems unlikely given that the Chinese Communist Party called this sort of forced divestiture “open robbery.”[39] American officials have also introduced the Restricting the Emergence of Security Threats that Risk Information and Communications Technology (RESTRICT) Act, which would authorize the secretary of commerce to investigate and recommend actions to the President concerning products and services it classifies as a national security threat, so long as the technology companies are based in countries deemed to be “foreign adversaries,” including China, Russia, Iran, North Korea, Venezuela, and Cuba.[40] 

Yet, it remains unclear why the focus remains on foreign adversaries. After all, all social media companies collect the same sorts of data.[41] And, even if those companies are not subject to national policy that requires turning over those data to state officials, data brokers that regularly sell our personal data could easily provide the same sorts of data to nations the United States believes to be foreign adversaries.[42]

            Critics of the escalation of bans happening across the West suggest that the real solution is for nations to provide consumer data protections.[43] Europe’s passage of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) represents one example of such a regime. [44]  The GDPR has extensive regulations to protect user’s personal data, including strict regulations, hefty fines, and potential reputational damage for companies that violate the law.[45] Europe also recently passed the Digital Services Act (DSA) which bans certain kinds of targeted adds, including adds based on “sensitive data such as religion, gender, race and political opinions.”[46] If regulations like these were to be adopted and enforced broadly, perhaps the market forces incentivizing data collection could be dampened. Accordingly, perhaps now is the time for nations to set aside their singular focus on Tiktok and instead focus on providing measures to protect the data of their citizens across the Internet.