Mostly, really, it’s a way for people to pass time on their phones. For others, it’s a nightmarish venue full of conspiracies, disturbing content, and various detriments to mental health for a significant few, it’s a source of work and a place to rapidly find large audiences. It’s beloved by many of its users for whom it’s an unparalleled connection to the broader culture. These same users are obviously somehow influenced by the content they encounter on the app, which serves them videos through an opaque system. ![]() It’s a social-media app that solicits and collects content and personal information from millions of daily American users who use the app on devices that collect and share information about their locations and other habits. But the broader case being mounted against TikTok is familiar. The main animating factor in the push to ban TikTok is the app’s Chinese ownership and its alleged ties to the Chinese government - it is, in this view, a national-security story. A more credible attempt at a ban is just one serious international incident, or one presidential election, away. TikTok - whose parent company, ByteDance, is headquartered in Beijing - is already friendless in Washington, D.C. Similar limited bans are in effect in parts of Europe and in Canada in 2020, as part of a wide crackdown on Chinese-owned online services, India banned the app completely. Last week, the Biden administration announced that federal agencies had 30 days to remove TikTok from government devices the United States military has prohibited the app for years. Numerous states have instituted partial bans of their own, restricting the use of TikTok on government hardware and at colleges. Since Donald Trump’s thwarted 2020 attempts to shut down the app and then force its sale to an American firm, pressure to do something has continued to mount the prospect has become more, not less, realistic since he left office. Still, it’s worth thinking about what TikTok’s sudden disappearance would actually mean. ![]() Most are following the Biden administration’s lead, deferring to an ongoing investigation into TikTok’s operations by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States. Some are receptive to a ban but not this type of ban others, including Elizabeth Warren, have suggested dealing with TikTok through broader, industrywide regulation. Republicans are united in their calls for an outright ban of TikTok, which the House committee chair, Michael McCaul, described as a “spy balloon in your phone.” (Republican representative Mike Gallagher of Wisconsin opted for “digital fentanyl.”) Democrats are more divided on strategy. It could also throw the tech industry into chaos.Ī full ban faces some political obstacles. ![]() This sudden lurch toward a full ban of the platform follows years of debate over how to handle the rise of the wildly popular Chinese-owned platform that has, since its sudden breakout in 2018, been beating its American rivals at their own game. Over the weekend, Democratic senator Mark Warner announced that, in partnership with Republican John Thune, he would be introducing a similar measure in the Senate. Last week, in a party-line vote, the Republican-controlled House Foreign Affairs Committee voted to advance a bill that would give President Biden the authority to sanction or ban TikTok. Photo-Illustration: Intelligencer Photo: Getty Images
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