TikTok and ByteDance: Protecting American User Data Against PRC Information Exploitation on Elections Day in Minnesota
Representative Sara Jacobs released a statement just after the vote, saying that she is aware of the threat that PRC information operations can pose to our elections.
Two years ago, “That Midwestern Mom” uploaded to TikTok a sample of her quirky Minnesota “salad” concoctions. The ingredients — Snickers bars, apples, Jell-O and Cool Whip — made her a viral sensation.
Other TikTokers use their platform as a means of giving back. William McCoy, who goes by Izzy White, is a former drug dealer and ex-felon from Baltimore. He said that he uses his platform to help homeless people.
Several journalists wrote critical stories about ByteDance and the company admitted that it had surveilled Americans on TikTok.
Krishnamoortha says that the company’s claims about their safeguards were false. Tiktok said that American user data is not going to be accessible to anyone in China. Again, wrong. That was also proven false. And then they said that American user data is not going to be used to target anybody again. Wrong. That was not true.
A Republican Vote on the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act (PH.R. 7521), a Social Media Critique
Republican members of the House voted for the measure despite opposition from the former president. It passed with 352 members supporting it and only 65 opposing, with one voting present.
A piece of legislation introduced by a congressman is not good for social media companies or individual users. He added that “it takes no position at all on the content of speech, only foreign adversary control.”
In speeches leading up to the vote on H.R. 7521, known as the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act, members of Congress highlighted the many security concerns with the app, including the potential for employees at the Chinese company to access American user data, and the spread of pro-China propaganda.
The bill is being questioned by prominent TikTok creators. “It’s unclear that this bill is going to actually protect Americans, but I don’t think that’s really the goal,” says Charlotte Palermino, CEO and founder of skin-care brand Dieux, a popular creator on TikTok and other platforms. “I find it to be very silly, but I think that it’s a nice encapsulation of American politics today, where we have people that do not understand technology trying to regulate it.”
“You had member offices being deluged with calls, you know, teenagers crying and one threatening suicide and one impersonating one of my colleague’s sons,” he said. “That, to me demonstrates how the platform could be weaponized in the future.”
The bill sets up a process for the president to address threats from foreign owned apps if they are deemed to be a national security risk. It creates a way for users to download their data and switch to another platform.
The ranking Democrat on the House Select committee on China is from Illinois, and he helped write the bill. He said there was no first amendment right to harm our national security.
The company stresses that it has invested its own money to set up a firewall in an effort dubbed “Project Texas” to address data privacy concerns and keep users’ data in the U.S.
TikTok: Facebook, the enemy of the media and the US economy in the wake of Trump’s anti-Tuktok ban
Former President Donald Trump, the presumptive GOP presidential nominee, proposed a ban back in 2020 when he was in the White House. But he does not support the House bill.
He had vowed to ban the app when he was president. Trump explained his new opposition in an interview with CNBC on Monday, saying that despite his the possible security risk, he opposed a ban because it meant users would move to another platform that he considered more dangerous.
“There’s a lot of good and there’s a lot of bad with TikTok. But the thing I don’t like is that without TikTok, you can make Facebook bigger and I consider Facebook to be an enemy of the people along with a lot of the media,” he said.
Despite low unemployment and falling inflation, the US economy is in the news on TikTok. One popular group of posts uses the term “Silent Depression.” The country is in worse shape than it was in 1930 according to the posts. My colleagues, Jeanna Smialek and Jim Tankersley, reported on the posts late last year.
The U.S. Protecting from Foreign Adversarial Controlled Applications Act (PACE) and Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY)
After Hamas’s Oct. 7 terrorist attack, TikTok flooded users with videos expressing extreme positions from both sides of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, tilted toward the Palestinian side, a Wall Street Journal analysis found. The Journal reported that many stoke fear. In November, videos praising an old Osama bin Laden letter also went viral.
On Monday, the top U.S. intelligence official released a report saying that the Chinese government had used TikTok to promote its propaganda to Americans and to influence the 2022 midterm elections. The report said China’s Communist Party could try to influence the election and cause U.S. societal divisions.
President Joe Biden has already said he would sign the bill, the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act, if both chambers advance it.
But even though the bill sailed through the House only about a week after it was first introduced, the Senate will present a whole different set of challenges.
To start, there’s no companion bill yet, so the legislation is barely at the start line in that chamber. Senate rules make it difficult to maintain enough support to clear it, even if one is introduced. Just one senator can put a hold on legislation to keep it from advancing quickly.
Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) has indicated he could be willing to do just that. He told The Washington Post prior to the vote that he would oppose any bill that violated the constitution, and he also said Congress shouldn’t be trying to take away the rights of 170 million Americans.
The RESTRICT Act: Protecting the Privacy of Children from TikTok’s Pirates, Rep. Josh Hawley and Marco Rubio
A long process of legal proceedings could leave room for doubts and lobbying money. The Senate introduced the RESTRICT Act just before TikTok’s CEO testified in the House. The measure slowly fell off the radar as opponents critiqued it. The chamber did not move through it.
But Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) maintained his longtime support for taking action on TikTok’s China ties, saying on X after the House vote that “the Senate should take up this bill immediately.”
Mark Warner, the chair of the Intelligence Committee, and Marco Rubio, his vice chair, said in a joint statement that they were excited by the strong bipartisan vote in the House of Representatives, and would like to work together to get the bill passed.
Warner was one of the lead authors of the RESTRICT Act, which is why he is willing to get behind the House bill. Warner supports the new House legislation that he thinks will lead to more aggressive action against the owners of TikTok.
“We don’t have only a TikTok problem—we have a Big Tech privacy problem,” Sen. Ed Markey (D-MA) wrote on X on Wednesday, advocating for his own online privacy legislation for children. “From Meta to Amazon to Discord, US-owned companies are preying on children & teens for profit. We don’t need to ban TikTok to fix their invasive practices. Passing my COPPA 2.0 is the answer.”
What will the RESTRICT Act tell us about the United States, its relationship to China, and what will it teach us about America?
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) has so far been noncommittal about the path the bill could take. Schumer said that the Senate will review the legislation when it comes over from the House.
Several supporters emphasized that the bill is not an all-out ban, but instead an incentive to force divestment so TikTok can separate its ties to China.
Both sides of the aisle voiced their concerns about the bill. The bill’s opponents fear it will be an ineffectual solution to real security concerns and come with unacceptable limits on free speech and expansion of governmental power.
Thomas Massie said it was not safe to give the president power to decide what Americans can see on their phones and computers.
Some Democrats have reservations about an all-out ban. Despite the early push from a group of powerful lawmakers, the RESTRICT Act ultimately vanished due to a strong lobbying campaign by TikTok and Republican fears about granting too much power to the executive branch.
Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene said she worried the bill could be used to force the sale of other social media platforms, particularly mentioning X, which is now owned by Elon Musk.
Many in Washington, including lawmakers from both parties and top intelligence officials, fear the Chinese government could use TikTok to spy on Americans, push pro-China propaganda, or use the service to interfere in U.S. elections.
Palermino sees TikTok Shop as a valuable tool for small businesses and says shuttering TikTok would have a negative short-term effect on Dieux. She says that losing that would be difficult. Dieux could pivot to focus on other platforms, but she believes a TikTok ban could affect other brands very badly in the United States. “It will hurt their business.”
President Biden has indicated he would sign the law, but it must clear the Senate before he will do so. There are other anti-TikTok efforts that have stopped, and it’s too early to say if the House’s legislation will make it through.
TikTok, MySpace, and Your Social Media Account: The Case For a National Security-Secure Social Media Platform
Legal experts say shutting down a social media platform in the name of national security is something that can only be accomplished if the security threat is overwhelming, thereby justifying a restriction of online speech.
There is no way to make TikTok disappear for the 170 million Americans who have already downloaded it. Users would no longer be able to download any further software updates if TikTok is removed from app stores. And experts say without the ability to update regularly, the app would become slow, glitchy, buggy and rife with other problems to the point where using it at all would be just about impossible.
If the Senate passes a companion bill with Biden’s signature, there is a six-month deadline to sell.
Virtual private networks, also known as VPNs, are used to protect location and make it easier to get past restrictions. The technique is popular in places like Russia and China, where governments have prohibited many popular internet apps and services.
National security officials in Washington have been looking into TikTok’s ties to Beijing for five years and they have not approved the plan.
After his time in the government, Mnuchin is back on Wall Street where he has made an announcement that he would invest more than one billion dollars into a troubled lender.
Bytedance has pushed back on those claims, saying it has not received a request from China to access the data of Americans and would not share it if asked.
TikTok, Vitamins, and American Fiction: Commentary on Mnuchin’s TeV-Phienology
On Thursday, former Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said that he will try to purchase TikTok, after the House passed a bill that could force the Chinese owners of the business to sell.
Makena suggest going to the office. (Really.) Mike is a fan of the mix of powdered vitamins. Lauren reiterates Kate Knibbs’ earlier recommendation of American Fiction, the film that just won an Oscar for best adapted screenplay.
Source: How a TikTok Ban Would Play Out
Makena Kelly on Twitter and the GadgetLab Hotline: Tuning In and Subscribe to Boone Ashworth’s Solar Keys Podcast
Makena Kelly is found on social media. Lauren Goode is @LaurenGoode. There is a person named Michael Calore. Bling the main hotline at @GadgetLab. The show is produced by Boone Ashworth (@booneashworth). Our theme music is by Solar Keys.
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