The Indian government’s ban on the popular Chinese app TikTok, which allows users to create and share short videos, and 58 other Chinese apps on June 29, 2020, came in the backdrop of the Galwan Valley clash with Chinese troops in Ladakh region near the Line of Actual Control (LAC), in which 20 Indian soldiers and at least four Chinese soldiers were killed.
The banned apps were “prejudicial to sovereignty and integrity of India, defence of India, security of state and public order,” the Indian government had said at the time.
The app’s name is said to be based on the phrase “tick-tock”, often used to convey an ominous countdown. That ominous countdown seems to have begun for TikTok.
India was among the first countries to ban the popular Chinese app, TikTok. Since 2020, other governments have totally or partially banned the app, citing “immoral” content or data privacy concerns.
Recently, the United States (US) threatened a ban on the app if TikTok’s Chinese parent company did not sell its stake in the company. While the ongoing saga over the app in the US is part of a wider range of disputes and disagreements between the top two economies in the world, US politicians are worried about a possible data breach.
Shou Chew, the company’s CEO, was recently questioned for five hours by members of the US Congress who were concerned about Beijing’s potential interference in the company’s US operations.
TikTok is countering strong allegations its parent company, Beijing-based ByteDance, will share user data with the Communist Party of China (CPC)-ruled if asked by them. Some US politicians also claim that the app could push propaganda and misinformation on its government’s behalf besides censoring topics that are considered sensitive to it. The app is already banned on federal devices in the US; many state governments have also banned the app on state government devices.
Beijing has vehemently denied the allegations, countering the claims by saying that it is actually Washington that is spreading the misinformation.
There are at least 150 million active users of the popular app in the United States alone.
“The US side has provided no evidence or proof to support its allegation, yet it has been abusing its state power to block and suppress the company concerned. This seriously violates the principles of market economy and fair competition, of which the US claims to be a champion. This is a classic example of US hegemonism,” Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson, Mao Ning said on March 28.
But many believe that apprehensions about the CPC’s all-pervasive influence on Chinese companies even when they are operating abroad mean data collected by a Chinese company is vulnerable to abuse.
Relevant Chinese legislations on national security are often cited to bolster this argument.
China’s 2017 National Intelligence Law, for example, states that “any organisation” must assist or cooperate with intelligence work. A 2014 counter-espionage law under which Chinese companies have to cooperate with the government is also cited.
There’s little doubt that ByteDance would have to abide by the Chinese government’s laws and its pervasive control, given there are no legal limits to the party’s powers.
In fact, ByteDance owner, Zhang Yiming had to write a public apology letter after being criticised by the authorities in 2018 for the apparently vulgar nature of some content on another app owned by the company. “I earnestly apologise to regulatory authorities, and to our users and colleagues. Since receiving the notice yesterday from regulatory authorities, I have been filled with remorse and guilt, entirely unable to sleep,” he wrote, according to a translation by the China Media Project.
Zhang had to shut down one app called Neihan Duanzi, suspend another, Toutiao, and promise to hire new staff members to monitor content released by the company, ByteDance.
It’s, however, not the CPC’s control and influence on Chinese companies alone but the ongoing strategic and military tension between China and the US, which are fuelling claims and counterclaims on TikTok.
“The demands and requirements of China’s National Security Law make the tie between the government and the app a real concern. (But) There is no doubt that this concern over the app is directly tied to the overall geo-political context of Sino-US relations,” Professor Richard Harknett, director, School of Public and International Affairs, University of Cincinnati, said.
Harknett added that the reality is that both China and the US are becoming more explicit and intentional in competing strategically. “Everything is going to filter through the frame of strategic competition,” he said.
“The foreign aspect of TikTok’s ownership is what the US perceived as the biggest security problem when it is only part of the story,” Rui Zhong, programme associate at the Kissinger Institute on China and the US at the Wilson Centre, said.
She pointed to the proposed US’ Restrict Act [Restricting the Emergence of Security Threats that Risk Information and Communications Technology Act]. The proposed Act makes it easier for Washington to ban or force the sale of specific software or equipment from certain countries if it’s deemed to pose a spying risk. The bill applies to technology connected to a “foreign adversary” of the US. Six countries fall under this designation: China (including Hong Kong and Macau), Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Russia, and Venezuela. Simply put, the Restrict Act will give the government clear power to ban any app that could threaten the security of Americans.
In Washington’s perspective, Harknett said, the fact that a strategic competitor has some access or potential direct access to nearly 50% of the US population— or “roughly 130 million pockets” — is a concern. “The app’s pervasiveness and lack of transparency is something that is going to lead to the US government taking some action. What that is, remains unclear, but action appears likely,” he added.
Yaqiu Wang, senior researcher for Human Rights Watch, explained the dilemma well when she wrote that TikTok might want to be like any other popular American social media company whose business “models unfortunately usually involve collecting massive amounts of personal data and relying on recommended algorithms that amplify misinformation and hate speech, while failing to protect the rights of vulnerable users..”
But it is the CPC’s looming presence in the background that complicates matters.
“…but the fact that TikTok is a Chinese company makes it extremely vulnerable to CCP demands. And the CCP has a record of making private Chinese companies carry out its political deeds, including censoring and surveilling Americans,” Wang wrote.
Sutirtho Patranobis, HT’s experienced China hand, writes a weekly column from Beijing, exclusively for HT Premium readers. He was previously posted in Colombo, Sri Lanka, where he covered the final phase of the civil war and its aftermath, and was based in Delhi for several years before that
The views expressed are personal