POV: If We Ban TikTok, What’s Next?
A ban of the China-based social media app would cause “irreparable harm,” Pardee professor argues
Photo via iStock/5./15 WEST
If We Ban TikTok, What’s Next?
A ban of the China-based social media app would cause “irreparable harm,” Pardee professor argues
On March 7, a powerful bipartisan House committee passed the motion to ban TikTok 50 to 0, and on March 13 the House voted 352 to 65 to pass the bill to ban TikTok. President Biden spoke in his State of Union address the previous week that he will sign the proposed ban if Congress passes it. In a deeply divided America, the near-consensus bill on banning the social media behemoth is truly remarkable. In the context of ever-evolving geopolitical and technological landscapes, any broad-reaching consensus on China or similarly complex global issues is likely informed by compelling domestic rationales. Yet, acting upon those rationales carries long-term risks for America and global affairs alike.
The primary rationale for banning TikTok is national security. Backers of the TikTok ban argue that ByteDance, the app’s Beijing-based parent company, could be compelled to act as an instrument of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). There is concern that the CCP could exploit TikTok’s data collection to advance its agendas or disseminate propaganda that could be beneficial to China and detrimental to the United States.
However, the national security argument has had limited evidence. And the fear of data breaches might be addressed through legal and technological measures, like mandating that data be stored domestically. But even more alarmingly, if we apply national security logic to TikTok, a descendent of a Chinese company, it could extend to Chinese immigrants—assuming it hasn’t already—whose ties to their homeland may be subject to pressures by the CCP.
Should we then consider the prohibition of Chinese immigrants or require them to sever their homeland ties? Regarding Chinese Americans, how do we feasibly differentiate them from mainland Chinese in light of their shared racial heritages? At what point, and by what criteria, should we delineate national security concerns when it comes to individuals, companies, and organizations with Chinese connections?
The second rationale is to protect the privacy and health of American minors. The concern is that TikTok has the potential to influence American teenagers in harmful ways. Since the youth represent a nation’s future, it appears imperative to ban what may be seen as a dangerous “backdoor” for manipulation. The internet additionally has become a public health issue, in America and globally. In fact, China’s Douyin, TikTok’s counterpart, has had millions of Chinese youth and elderly hooked up to the level of digital epidemic.
As many have noted, however, the ban of TikTok will not solve the issue related to youth and public health risks. As my own teenage daughters suggest, young users will just shift that time over to other platforms like YouTube Shorts, Instagram, Facebook, and various messaging apps. More dangerously, by removing the “China” factor, there is a diminished impetus to invest in enhancing public consciousness and developing infrastructure to aid schools and families in managing the unprecedented deluge of information, content, and its potentially harmful effects.
The third argument for banning TikTok is based on reciprocity. Some contend that since China has restricted access to platforms like Facebook and Google and implemented the Chinese firewall, the US has the right and justification to respond in kind. However, this logic is problematic in a number of ways. Firstly, in China, the government mandates internet censorship: Yahoo complied, Google exited, and Facebook was never granted an operating license. The TikTok ban permits no room for compliance. Secondly, the Chinese political system, which seeks to maintain single-party dominance, is inherently threatened by free information flows—in contrast to the US, a pluralistic democracy that thrives on open information, multiparty electoral competition. Lastly, China’s stringent information controls have produced a profound fragility within its state and society, from which there appears to be no escape.
The fate of TikTok now hangs in the balance in the Senate; whether it will be banned or continue to operate is likely to have a more limited impact than what is argued by either the backers of the ban or the advocates of TikTok users. However, the fundamental rationales behind the ban—the securitization of all connections with China, preferring regulations over mitigation of digital content harms, and an emerging inclination to censor information carriers—are likely to inflict long-term and irreparable harm on both America and global affairs.
Min Ye, professor of international relations at the Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies, can be reached at ye@bu.edu.
“POV” is an opinion page that provides timely commentaries from students, faculty, and staff on a variety of issues: on-campus, local, state, national, or international. Anyone interested in submitting a piece, which should be about 700 words long, should contact John O’Rourke at orourkej@bu.edu. BU Today reserves the right to reject or edit submissions. The views expressed are solely those of the author and are not intended to represent the views of Boston University.
Comments & Discussion
Boston University moderates comments to facilitate an informed, substantive, civil conversation. Abusive, profane, self-promotional, misleading, incoherent or off-topic comments will be rejected. Moderators are staffed during regular business hours (EST) and can only accept comments written in English. Statistics or facts must include a citation or a link to the citation.