CHINA WATCHDemocracies Should Learn the TikTok Lesson and Restrict Risky Apps from Day One
With its recent halt on implementing a legally mandated ban on TikTok, the United States is learning the hard way that when it comes to Chinese technology, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.
With its recent halt on implementing a legally mandated ban on TikTok, the United States is learning the hard way that when it comes to Chinese technology, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.
The US and like-minded democracies should no longer permit any social media platforms with direct ties to authoritarian governments with political censorship regimes to operate without restriction.
For years, technology and national security analysts have sketched out scenarios of what might happen if a democratic population were to become dependent on a Chinese-owned technology. Once such a technology becomes embedded in people’s daily lives and livelihoods, removing it stirs up a host of domestic political controversies, making it politically untenable to mitigate the national security risks.
That is exactly what has happened with TikTok. Around 170 million Americans—about half the country’s population and an even higher percentage of those using social media—use the short video app, owned by Chinese tech giant ByteDance. Millions of Americans have become dependent on their TikTok followings, built up over years, for their income or to promote their businesses. Tens of millions more use TikTok as a key source of information, community, and entertainment.
In classic American fashion, those users have refused to go gentle into that good night. As a law banning TikTok was set to go into effect on 19 January, many users downloaded the Chinese social media app RedNote, which isn’t just Chinese-owned—it is Chinese itself, based in Shanghai and subject to all Chinese national security and intelligence laws. Self-styled ‘TikTok refugees’ said they moved to RedNote to express their disregard for US government concern about the risks presented by Chinese companies. Overnight, RedNote, which presents even clearer security risks than TikTok, became the top download on the Apple app store in the US.
TikTok called on US President Donald Trump to offer a reprieve, and he did. On his first day in office, Trump signed an executive order authorizing a 75-day extension on the law taking effect.
