About two months ago, many people saw Trump’s threat to ban TikTok in the news, while others may have noticed, at some point, that China doesn't have access to TikTok. What's the relationship between TikTok and these countries’ governments? When did it become a matter that concerned politics? Why does this pose an issue?
TikTok started as a Chinese platform owned by the social media giant ByteDance. The latter was the internet company that bought Musical.lly in late 2017 or early 2018 (sources vary). Furthermore, ByteDance is known for having launched a Chinese equivalent to Musica.lly in 2016 called Douyin. Many say that these merged or evolved to become TikTok. While they may share similar elements, they are still different platforms. TikTok was the first Chinese platform to become truly global. Forbes, an American business magazine, explained, “TikTok managed to escape its Chinese confinement to go head to head with western tech giants, ” western, that is, to the United States.
The American and Chinese relationship is not smooth sailing, and so having the American population worship and promote the Chinese TikTok app as much as it does, caused some unrest. The U.S has always been wary of Chinese tech because China is known for censoring and omitting certain pieces of information to benefit their communist party.
As reported by BBC, “China has one of the most restricted internet spaces in the world, with its infamous Great Firewall blocking parts of the web for its citizens.” TikTok was indeed banning/taking down videos that were considered politically sensitive, including the Tiananmen Square protests and the Tibetan independence demands. TikTok also has a feature that won't necessarily take down a video but can make a video “visible to self;” this means that although the video is still up, the feature strictly regulates the visibility via the algorithm, so the video does not reach as many people.
The U.S government has accused TikTok of collecting data from its users and funneling it to the communist party. They believe that the communist party holds sway over ByteDance, although ByteDance pronounced otherwise.
New York Times stated that, for many years, the founder of ByteDance said he “ran a tech company, not a media outlet, which meant he should not be imposing his judgments over content.”
Going back to Trump, he claimed that he would ban TikTok if an American company didn't buy it; consequently, pressuring ByteDance into action. Since TikTok is ever-growing, getting one’s hands on it may prove incredibly beneficial, financially speaking. As a result, Microsoft naturally felt threatened. The Guardian said, “Microsoft appears to have little competition,” making it a big contender; this was no easy feat, considering the ridiculous amount of money that came into play. Microsoft proposed a six-week deal with TikTok, planning to wrap up by September of this year. But later, on September 13th, Microsoft declared that Byte Dance rejected their bid.
Other big companies like Oracle stepped up, with Walmart close behind. Oracle isn't outright buying TikTok but becoming its “trusted tech partner,” as put by Barron’s, an American magazine. “Oracle has agreed to become TikTok's business partner in the United States, though it's not clear that the proposed deal will appease government officials on either side,” said CNN Business.
Deals and talks have been going on for a while between ByteDance and the Trump administration. On September 27th, the American government almost banned the app, if not for a judge that temporarily blocked the order. The whole process is very likely to take longer and even drag past the November elections.
The two superpowers of our current world are fighting a major political and economic battle. In this scenario, ByteDance is the unfortunate fish caught in the proverbial net. Discussions will persist until a final decision is set in stone, and, until then, anything is possible.
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