WASHINGTON —

At a time when all walks of life in the United States are calling for a comprehensive ban on TikTok, the overseas version of Douyin, which is accused of being closely related to the Chinese government, more and more states in the United States are introducing measures to require all state government mobile devices to disable TikTok. According to the analysis, if the Biden administration bans TikTok at the national level, it will gain broad public support.


 


More states ban TikTok from government devices

This month, South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster, Texas Governor Greg Abbott, Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt Stitt, and Maryland Governor Larry Hogan (Larry Hogan) successively issued directives prohibiting the use of TikTok on electronic devices owned by the state government on the grounds that TikTok poses a security risk to network infrastructure.

Prior to this, South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem (Kristi Noem) issued an executive order on November 28, prohibiting state government employees and contract employees from using TikTok on state equipment.

As of December 12, at least six states in the United States have issued restrictions prohibiting the installation of TikTok on state government equipment. There are signs that more states are on the verge of introducing similar measures.

In Arkansas, state Senator Gary Stubblefield has introduced legislation that would seek to ban state employees and contractors from using or downloading TikTok on state-owned or state-leased devices. Tennessee Governor Bill Lee has proposed banning TikTok from state-owned mobile devices and state-installed Internet service networks; Virginia State Senator Ryan McDougal ) publicly stated on December 9 that it would launch a proposal to ban TikTok on government devices in the state.

At the same time, the state of Indiana accused TikTok of committing violations and announced its prosecution. Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita accused TikTok on Dec. 7 of deceiving users about whether the Chinese government had accessed data on the platform and exposing children to adult content through "various misleading statements".

As early as August 2020, Nebraska took the lead in issuing an order prohibiting the installation and use of TikTok on state-owned devices, citing concerns that the Chinese government may gain control of the U.S. government through its control of TikTok’s parent company, Beijing ByteDance. of sensitive data.

TikTok's relationship with China is worrying


That concern has been echoed by a growing number of senior U.S. intelligence and security officials. U.S. Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines (Avril Haines) said at the Reagan National Defense Forum in California on December 3 that American parents should be concerned about the information privacy issues children and teenagers face when using TikTok.

FBI Director Christopher Wray had said the previous day that there were national security concerns about the app. He said that the Chinese government may use TikTok to collect data on American users and manipulate its recommendation algorithm to promote the CCP. He also said that TikTok may be used to indirectly obtain information about other software on the user's device, and the risks cannot be ignored.

While TikTok has become the most popular video-sharing social platform among young users in the United States, scandals have repeatedly broken out on issues such as data security, user privacy, and opaque content push algorithms.

Joel Thayer, president of the Digital Progress Institute, said governors across the U.S. took the initiative because they “see through the deception about ByteDance’s ties to the Chinese Communist Party — - How much control does the Chinese government have over such assets", and the ban on TikTok within the scope of power is a "natural response" to the risks of TikTok.

"What these governors are doing, is they're taking action in their own jurisdictions, and they're trying to make sure, at least on government-owned devices, that the Chinese Communist Party doesn't have the opportunity to use TikTok to spy on those devices," he told VOA.

TikTok is estimated to have 80 million monthly active users in the United States. Although the governor's ban will not necessarily cause a large-scale blow to the actual number of TikTok users and devices, TikTok USA stated in response to the US media that these orders may have an impact on the mobile phone devices of many universities.

Much American public and private colleges and universities receive government funding, and some have direct or indirect partnerships with the government, so state government regulations on the use of mobile phone devices may affect university users.

A blanket ban on TikTok could gain popular support in the United States. The survey results released by the American polling company Rasmussen Reports (Rasmussen Reports) on December 9 showed that 68% of likely American voters support the proposal made by some members of Congress to ban TikTok in the United States, and 43% of them strongly support TikTok ban.

The poll showed that 24% of people opposed banning TikTok, including 12% who strongly opposed it.


Thayer, chairman of the Digital Progress Institute, emphasized that the bans issued by states on TikTok highlight the urgent need for the US federal level to issue clear instructions on TikTok security issues as soon as possible.

He said: "Skeptics may say that this is mainly symbolic. But I think that even if (the state ban) is not as effective as most people who call for a total ban on TikTok hope, it is at least to the president. Sends a signal that if you (the president) really want to take the line of banning TikTok, you will have support."
TikTok's talks with the U.S. government continue

Former U.S. President Trump tried to force TikTok to stop operating in the U.S. through an executive order in 2020 and let U.S. companies take over its operations in the U.S. but failed to win court support after a series of lawsuits. After the Biden administration came to power, it revoked Trump's executive order and instead sought direct negotiations with TikTok on security and content issues.

Negotiations between TikTok and the U.S. government, however, have stalled over how TikTok will share with the U.S. government its algorithm for recommending videos to users, and Washington's trust in the Chinese-controlled app.

The "Wall Street Journal" reported that TikTok had previously reached a preliminary agreement with the US government, but officials from the Department of Justice and other departments believed that the agreement lacked strength. The focus of negotiations between TikTok and the US government: reduce the Chinese government’s influence on TikTok’s US operations, but not completely cut off TikTok’s ties with China.

The report said that both parties agreed to store the data of American users on Oracle cloud servers in the United States.

But according to people familiar with the matter, some government officials have sought to make any TikTok security protocols stricter in some ways. They are concerned about TikTok's ability to obtain consumer data and believe that the platform may be used for "influence operations.".

The Committee on Foreign Investment (CFIUS) is the main government department involved in the TikTok negotiations. Charles Flint, former chief of staff of U.S. Republican Senator Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) and chairman of the consulting firm Flint Consulting, told VOA via email that foreign countries The review work of the Investment Committee is highly confidential, and it is estimated that the agency is "hesitant" on whether to ban TikTok.

"Unless there is an outright ban, China's TikTok data pipeline is here to stay," Flint said.


Republicans are pushing for a blanket ban on TikTok


U.S. political leaders have recently stepped up criticism of TikTok over national security concerns. Especially when the House of Representatives of Congress is about to be dominated by the Republican Party, the scrutiny of TikTok in the US political circle is bound to increase.

Republicans are pushing for a blanket ban on TikTok. Republican lawmakers have been ramping up their criticism of TikTok and are preparing to pass legislation to ban TikTok in the United States, striving to have a stronger legal basis than the executive orders adopted during the Trump era. They also said they would strictly monitor the actions of the Biden administration.

Republican Senator Marco Rubio and Republican Representative Mike Gallagher announced in November that they would introduce legislation to ban TikTok "and other social media that are effectively controlled by the CCP." The company operates in the United States".

The staff of Representative Gallagher told the US media that the entertainment and economic income that TikTok brings to Americans cannot make up for the risks TikTok poses to US national security, and Americans can easily find alternatives to TikTok.

Although the governors who issued a ban on TikTok are all Republicans, some Democrats have also clearly voiced their support for the ban on TikTok's safety issues.

The Democratic chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, Mark Warner (Mark Warner), is a longtime critic of TikTok. He even said that Trump's decision to ban TikTok in 2022 during his tenure was "correct."

Current Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco recently said that Chinese companies linked to Chinese intelligence agencies "should not be trusted to securely process sensitive personal data and communications".