The “Averting the National Threat of Internet Surveillance, Oppressive Censorship and Influence, and Algorithmic Learning by the Chinese Communist Party Act” (ANTI-SOCIAL CCP Act) would ban using TikTok on American devices so long as ByteDance manages the app. The bill seeks to protect American citizens from threats posed by foreign countries with control over current and future social media platforms. Its focus is preventing foreign entities from conducting surveillance, learning sensitive data, and influencing the American public. Utilizing the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, it grants the President the power to block all transactions of both property and interests on TikTok or any future social media platform deemed similar.
Background
The national security concern surrounding TikTok is not new. In 2019, the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States began to review the purchase of Musical.ly by ByteDance, TikTok’s parent company. In 2022, Commissioner Carr of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and Christopher Wray, the director of the FBI, separately stated that there is a consensus in the United States that TikTok is a national security concern. They agree that consumer privacy and influence campaigns, which are “large-scale campaigns that seek to shift public opinion,” are major concerns regarding the app, primarily based on the possibility that the Chinese government could utilize the app for these harmful purposes. The federal government has already approved an unprecedented ban, blocking the app on federal government devices, and many states have followed suit. This bill would expand the scope of the current ban to include all privately owned American devices.
Though the concern has been raised by several national security experts and politicians, including Marco Rubio and Mike Gallagher, it has not captured the public consciousness in the same way. The app is still top-rated in the United States, where users more than doubled from 2019-2021. The total number of Americans using the app in 2023 is over 100 million. Therefore, the ANTI-SOCIAL CCP Act could affect much of the United States population if passed.
A federal judge has already granted a preliminary injunction, which blocked a previous attempt to ban the app. Similar bills and regulations may be introduced if the bill is not passed after a vote. The challenges around online privacy, misinformation, and influence campaigns will not disappear with or without the ban.
Support for ANTI-SOCIAL CCP Act
Proponents of the bill advocate labeling ByteDance, which owns TikTok, as a puppet company of the Chinese government. One of the bill’s sponsors, Marco Rubio, stated this belief publicly. The Chinese government has hired firms to recruit social media personalities to deliver crafted messages and established a network of state sponsored influencers who present their narratives, increasing the volume of exposure to their ideas. In addition, a Forbes study found many connections between ByteDance and China’s state-sponsored media industry. At the time of the study, 300 current employees had previously been employed by Chinese media publications, and many were still employed by those same firms. The connections between the two entities propel the concern for influence campaigns on the app.
An NYU and Global Witness study in 2022 indicated that TikTok failed to screen 90% of false ads, scoring worse than any other social media company. In comparison, YouTube caught 100% of the ads in the study and banned accounts posting misinformation. In addition an increasing number of individuals get their news media from TikTok. This created the possibility for misinformation to be disseminated to large segments of the American public with little oversight under existing laws. Incendiary posts and topics are rewarded by social media algorithms because they generate user engagement; consequently, fake ads and misinformation can affect all TikTok users. The ease with which misinformation can spread on the app was exemplified by videos making false claims about COVID-19 and vaccines. Lawmakers’ concern stems from the fact that the Chinese government could control the recommendation algorithm on TikTok which would allow it to manipulate content.
Hundreds of organizations have been found sharing data with ByteDance and TikTok, while over 28,000 apps use TikTok’s software development kits which also share data. While TikTok claims that US data is stored entirely outside of China, a member of TikTok’s Trust and Safety department stated that all data is still seen in China. In addition, there is a Chinese law that requires all private companies to turn over data to the government upon request. The possibility that the Chinese government can use this law to view American users’ data upon request is the catalyst for many data privacy concerns.
Opposition to ANTI-SOCIAL CCP Act
Opponents of the bill claim that the free speech element of the First Amendment protects postings on TikTok. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) embraced this belief in a letter. In addition, Dr. James Andrew Lewis, Senior Vice President of the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), seconded the belief in a commentary. The ACLU and Dr. Lewis argue that the government has no right to ban posts on TikTok, let alone ban the app entirely.
Others argue that platform ownership does not affect the range of information that the Chinese government can collect. Dr. Lewis of CSIS reports that many intelligence agencies can consistently scrape various social media platforms, not just TikTok, to collect user biographical information. Further, this type of information is available for purchase on the dark web. This argument rests on the belief that ownership of the company does not grant the Chinese government any unique privileges beyond what it would be able to attain without direct influence over a social media platform. Therefore, the opposition believes that banning TikTok is based on anti-China rhetoric and sidesteps a much larger problem of online privacy. In a world where cyber attacks occur every 39 seconds, banning one app would change little concerning the safety of social media users. Multiple apps also collect similar data; banning one merely transfers the issue to the subsequent app to which users will flock.
In addition, many of the concerns raised about misinformation and news could be applied to virtually all social media platforms, not just TikTok. Algorithms on Twitter, Instagram, Youtube, and Facebook also reward high-engagement posts, which tend to be inflammatory or polarizing. Those same platforms have also struggled to regulate “fake news” and the spread of misinformation.
Finally, ByteDance claims that they never have or will provide data to the CCP. Georgetown Law Professor Anupam Chandler seconds this belief, stating that no concrete evidence exists of the two entities (ByteDance and the CCP) working together. In the aftermath of a leak, ByteDance fired all involved employees and restructured the audit and risk team, emphasizing the company’s commitment to working with the United States. Many consider the ban preemptive for these reasons.
