The popular video streaming and creation app, TikTok is under fire again by President Trump. In an announcement today, Trump claimed he would be ordering Chinese parent company Bytedance to sell its shares of TikTok.
This is not the first time Trump has targeted TikTok. Trump called to ban TikTok in the US just weeks after users organized and reserved tickets to a Trump rally in order to inflate the expected attendance. The US president has even made the outlandish statement to ban TikTok in order to get back at China for the coronavirus. Although the coronavirus is completely unrelated to the concern regarding the app, the administration has attempted to use TikTok as a political gambit. The current plan to force Bytedance to divert ownership could be based on a number of reasons.
There are concerns about the data gathered from American TikTok users by China as well as the growing tension regarding the United States' support for Hong Kong's autonomy. China is now subject to sanctions under a new US law that prohibits mainland China to interfere with Hong Kong's legal and economic system. Because China is attempting to suppress freedom of speech in Hong Kong, some speculate that the removal of Chinese ownership of TikTok is based on the sanctions.
Bytedance previously owned Musical.ly and later merged with TikTok, prompting the Committee on Foreign Investment to launch an investigation because of the app's massive success. However, TikTok has assured that data is not stored on Chinese servers and Bytedance has even appointed an American CEO that formerly worked for Disney to handle operations.
TikTok has already been banned in India due to tensions between China and India that have escalated into skirmishes near the border of the two countries. Because there is also tension between the US and China, The TikTok ban is a threat used by President Trump on multiple occasions as a political weapon.
Despite the many threats from President Trump, TikTok has made massive strides in the US market, breaking into video game creation and even created a fund to pay creators. With over 500 million users, the possibility for data breaches is relevant, however, the same can be said for digital giants Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter. Facebook has even attacked TikTok for its data-gathering policies, which has been seen as highly hypocritical given Facebook's history of the controversial use of data and complacency for political misinformation.
Source: LA Times