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THE TIKTOK BATTLE, EXPLAINED
By Lisa Desjardins, @LisaDNews
Correspondent
If you are a TikTok user, or if you answer the phones at a Capitol Hill office, you know the social media giant is engaged in an existential battle with Congress.
There are a few layers here. But complexity does not have to be confusing. We think we can provide a simple breakdown of the situation.
The basics:
- TikTok is owned by ByteDance,a company based in China.
- On this point, everyone agrees.
- AND many agree on what Congress is considering: A bill that would force ByteDance to either sell TikTok to a wholly owned American company or face a ban. That bill raced through committee last week and could get a vote on the House floor Wednesday.
- But from there, the discussion diverges into two diametric camps.
What U.S. critics say:
- ByteDance, as a media company in China, is subject to the rules of the Chinese Communist Party.
- The company has a separate Chinese business, a counterpart to TikTok, called Douyin. The Communist Party owns a small stake in the company. And a party official named Wu Shugang was appointed to sit on Douyin’s board in the past three years.
- A company whistleblower last year alleged in a lawsuit that the company had placed a backdoor opening in its software that could allow it to access U.S. user data.
- This kind of data and how many users it involves could pose myriad security risks for U.S. officials and individuals, as well as the potential for spreading disinformation aimed at the U.S. public in general.
- This Associated Press story is a good deep dive on why some see a national security threat here.
WhatTikTok argues:
- It has spent more than $1 billion dollars on “Project Texas,” through which it has paid Oracle to keep U.S. TikTok data in the U.S.
- TikTok also pushes back against the idea that it is “Chinese-owned,” writing that, “roughly 60 percent of the company is beneficially owned by global institutional investors such as Carlyle Group, General Atlantic, and Susquehanna International Group.” It has said the remaining 40 percent is held by TikTok employees and the company’s founder, who is Chinese but based in Singapore.
- In addition, TikTok’s parent company ByteDance touts that three of the five members of its board of directors are Americans.
- And finally, TikTok argues that other U.S. companies operating in China, like Disney, have agreed to Chinese Communist Party regulations in order to stay in business there.
There is more that we do not know about why national security officials see TikTok as a specific threat. But members of Congress have received classified briefings on that topic, including one happening today.
Now, we wait for a high-stakes debate and vote, when TikTok’s estimated 170 million users, their data security and their ability to express themselves will all be on the line.
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