TikTok, as happened with Huawei, ZTE and other Chinese companies, is victim of the technological war unleashed by the US against Beijing. Biden has not only supported all the measures imposed by Trump to stop the development of the Asian giant, but encourages the decision of legislators to find the formula to decouple the two economies and prevent China from further benefiting from US superiority. An example of this is the proposal of the new speaker of the House of Representatives, Kevin McCarthy, to create a committee on the strategic competition between China and the US that will investigate “the economic, technological and security progress of the Chinese Communist Party” against the US.
TikTok, with its billion followers, is seen as the enemy to beat. The application already suffered the wrath of India, after the confrontation that occurred in one of the border areas disputed with China in which 20 Indian soldiers died, in 2020. Narendra Modi banned it with a stroke of the pen, along with 55 other Chinese applications, despite having 200 million users in the country , the largest market after the US. He relied on a law that allows the government to block websites and apps in the interest of the “sovereignty and integrity” of the nation. Washington intends to do the same.
It has been of little use that TikTok moved its headquarters to Singapore in 2020, placed a citizen of that city-state at the helm and ensured that is independent of ByteDance, its Chinese parent, and that the data of its users is kept outside of China. The manhunt for US lawmakers was underway and moving fast. In December, US federal employees were prohibited from using the application on government devices and 21 of the 50 states already apply similar rules. Turning off TikTok will clearly sit well with its big rivals, Instagram and YouTube.
Everything indicates that TikTok’s problems, as has already happened with Huawei, will spread throughout the West. Europe, which every day adds more to the siege that the White House wants to close on China, has summoned the general director of the company, Shou Zi Chew, to Express your concern about data flowing to Chinacybersecurity and misinformation.
Related news
The year looks dark for ByteDance. To the political fury of the United States must be added Beijing’s regulatory unpredictability, determined to bring the big technology companies to heel. The company had to give up on your ambitious online education plans, after Xi Jinping’s decision in 2021 to ban private tutoring to promote more equal education. ByteDance’s foray into gaming was also difficult amid China’s heavy limitations on the new ‘opium of the people’. However, its live streaming e-commerce business is challenging conventional e-commerce giants such as Alibaba.
Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok, has 600 million daily active users and is ByteDance’s main source of income so far. The Chinese government uses the platform to introduce propaganda videos, but it is not ruled out that one day it will try to clip its wings.
