TikTok: Time Is Running Out – Social Media

TikTok has exploded in popularity with 170 million users in the United States
(“US”). For context, at least one in three Americans
access the application, and according to a 2022 Pew Research Center survey, two-thirds of
teenagers use TikTok every day. If there is one issue capable of
drawing responsiveness from both ends of the US political spectrum,
it is the notion of a foreign nation corrupting the minds of their
youth.

The Energy and Commerce Committee has unanimously approved a
bill designed to force TikTok’s Chinese parent company,
ByteDance Ltd., to sell the social media platform within six
months. The Protecting Americans From Foreign Adversary
Controlled Applications Act explicitly names TikTok and
effectively criminalizes the distribution, maintenance or updating
of a foreign adversary controlled application in the US. If the
legislation is enacted, TikTok would be banned from all electronic
devices unless ownership were to change.

TikTok responded with the following mass
in-application message to its users: “Speak up now —
before your government strips 170 million Americans of their
Constitutional right to free expression.” The message was
equipped with a button to reach TikTok representatives and urged
users to “[l]et Congress know what TikTok means to [them] and
tell [Congress] to vote NO”.

The possibility of democratic governments banning social media
platforms, especially those as widely used as Tiktok, may seem
somewhat draconian. The bill certainly raises interesting questions
on the enduring struggle between private and public considerations,
and in particular, individual freedom of expression versus national
security. Policymakers have long feared that China could use TikTok data to
identify intelligence targets, facilitate disinformation campaigns
and sow disorder in the West. Will “Tiktokers” and
American tech giants fend them off? Only time will tell.

The content of this article does not constitute legal advice
and should not be relied on in that way. Specific advice should be
sought about your specific circumstances.