House lawmakers this Wednesday voted to pass a bill that would essentially ban TikTok in the United States or force them to sell to an American company. This is because TikTok’s parent company is ByteDance which is Chinese-owned. The bill to ban us because TikTok has 170 Million U.S. users and China’s intelligence laws could force ByteDance to give the Chinese Communist Party U.S. user data. The U.S. government has not publicly claimed that China has actually accessed TikTok user data. House lawmakers consider TikTok a national security threat. Over 15 countries have already banned TikTok including Inida and America may be next to join the list.
The possible ban on TikTok will affect the region in a few ways. If the bill goes through China is likely to retaliate against America. The ban would also weaken the Chinese economy because ByteDance is one of the biggest and quickest-growing Chinese tech companies and America has a large portion of the users on Tiktok. Banning Tiktok in the states can disappoint young voters if the bill is passed and may vote against the president who banned TikTok. As well as people who make their living off of TikTok could lose their jobs. But if ByteDance sells to an American company China may want something in return.
This relates to our international relations class because it has to deal with national security. It relates to national security because China can use ByteDance to data on users on TikTok. This is a security threat because China can use the data to hack and disrupt our way of living. With over 50% of adults with TikTok accounts, this can seriously hurt our country, and this is why so many countries already have it banned. But besides the fact that China can get data TikTok in general is harmful to our society. Many people have mental health and education issues from to much TikTok use.
https://www.cnn.com/2024/03/16/tech/congress-privacy-tiktok-meta-social-network/index.html