Two years after former President Donald Trump announced his intention to ban TikTok in the United States via executive order, the short-form video platform once again finds itself under scrutiny in Washington. The ongoing concern revolves around TikTok’s connections to China through its parent company, ByteDance.
An increasing number of US lawmakers are urging the Biden administration to take action against TikTok, citing significant concerns over national security and data privacy. This renewed scrutiny follows a June report by BuzzFeed News alleging that certain US user data has been accessed multiple times from China. The report referenced leaked audio recordings from numerous internal TikTok meetings, including one where an employee purportedly stated, “Everything is seen in China.”
In response to the report, TikTok previously stated that it “has consistently maintained that our engineers outside of the US, including in China, may access US user data on a strictly as-needed basis under stringent controls.” A TikTok executive testified before a Senate panel last year, affirming that the platform does not share information with the Chinese government, and that a US-based security team determines access to US user data from China.
The renewed scrutiny of TikTok coincides with the platform’s increasing influence in the United States. Following Trump’s departure from office, the Biden administration rescinded the executive order and largely scaled back efforts to ban TikTok officially. Last year, TikTok reported surpassing 1 billion monthly active users globally, with over 100 million users estimated to be in the United States according to market research. The app’s activity continues to impact the news cycle, popular music, culinary trends, and more across the country. Meanwhile, other US social media giants are incorporating TikTok-like features in an attempt to compete.
Some critics had criticized Trump’s aggressive stance against the rapidly expanding video app as political theater driven by xenophobia. They also questioned Trump’s peculiar proposal that the United States should receive a share of any deal if the app were sold to an American company. However, the recent bipartisan pressure from lawmakers illustrates how the national security concerns surrounding TikTok persist in the United States, even with a new administration in place.
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