Little dances, posturing, comedy, curiosities… TikTok content is increasingly varied. However, this is not what worries governments. Neither does the time young people spend on the social network. TikTok is in danger because of its data processing. Something that has already had consequences such as the recent ban on its use for European officials.
Although the ones who seem to be taking the lead in the crusade are the Americans, who have been behind the social network of Chinese origin for some time. The thing has advanced so much that yesterday TikTok CEO underwent questioning in the United States Congress. And in the absence of conclusions, the matter does not quite paint well for the social network.
It rains it pours on the roof of TikTok
TikTok’s privacy policy He has been in the eye of the hurricane for a long time. And it is that not even the social network is hiding, since in its latest changes they openly recognized that their employees can access user data.
This controversial way of treating the data and the fact that China was behind it meant that in 2020, still with Donald Trump as president, the United States prohibited its citizens from accessing TikTok (and Wechat, for similar reasons). And although thanks to the allegations that they already made an agreement in extremis with Oracle managed to lift the ban. Although it would not last long either, since officials of the country’s House of Representatives are prohibited from using it on “official” devices.
And although the protection of user data seems to be the priority, the truth is that this issue hides the West’s fear of Chinese espionage. However, over the past few years we have been able to learn several studies that do not finish throwing evidence on espionage. See as examples those of The Washington Post or Citizen Lab.
And so we come to the moment in which the CEO of TikTok, Shou Zi Chew, declared yesterday before a committee of the United States Congress, who tried to defend the platform, although he left some striking phrases such as that “Government devices shouldn’t have social media.” Argument with which he tried to add platforms as a general concept due to the amount of data that ultimately all end up collecting.
No politics. The CEO went there to “describe what they do on the platform.”
Yes indeed, did not deny that Chinese employees accessed the data, something that we already knew before and that we already warned that it is reflected in its conditions. However, many of the questions from the congressmen were not directed at those employees, but at the government. but chew denied that they shared data with the Chinese government. Also emphatically.
The Congress men did not cease their interest in the Chinese government, alluding to how ‘Douyin’, the name given to TikTok in China, censors content that goes against the government. Also about how that same government persecutes the ethnic group of the Uyghurs. Chew stated that he was concerned about situations in which Human Rights are violated, but he took it upon himself to make it clear what he was doing in Congress: “My role here is to describe what we do on the platform.”
Again in relation to privacy and how the congressmen were urging TikTok to comply with “American values”, Chew ‘hit back’ by putting other scandals with US applications on the table. The CEO of the social network remembered the Cambridge Analytica case. For the most forgetful, it was that scandal carried out by Facebook (now called Meta) at the expense of the leaking of Facebook user data for political reasons.
‘Nationalize’ or be banned. Few outlets seem to be left for TikTok in the United States.
Several analysts, such as Lindsay Gorman of the German Marshall Fund, agree in their hypothesis about how uncertain and dark the future of the social network paints. At least in the United States. One of the possible exits is that a part of ByteDance, the company that owns TikTok, is sold to an American company. The other is the prohibition.
Nevertheless, that of being prohibited in a general way seems like a complicated path for those who already want it. Beyond the complexity that drafting legislation in this regard already entails, those who request it are finding opposition from senators from the Democratic Party. And that Joe Biden shows signs of supporting that path.
So it seems that There are still a few chapters of this ‘TikTok soap opera’ left. In Europe, the matter is being followed with interest. As we saw previously, in the old continent they have already begun to consider measures similar to what North America started in its day. Therefore, what happens there could have its mirror in Brussels.
Cover Image | Eyestetix Studio on Unsplash
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