Posted December 14, 2022 at 5:55pm
“ANTI-SOCIAL CCP Act”: this is the name of a bipartisan bill presented in Washington on Tuesday to oust the social network TikTok from the United States, the latest coup by the intransigents, at a time when the positions towards Chinese companies.
“It’s time to permanently ban TikTok, which is controlled by Beijing,” said Florida Republican Senator Marco Rubio, author of this text whose acronym stands for “Law to Prevent the National Surveillance Threat of the Internet, oppression through censorship and influence and algorithmic learning by the Communist Party of China”.
This initiative comes as the social network navigates in great confusion in the United States: after almost passing into the hands of the American Oracle under pressure from Donald Trump, the American branch of the Chinese Bytedance was pardoned by Joe Biden. But in two years the Justice Department and the Administrative Committee for Foreign Investments (CFIUS) have still not decided his fate.
Five states ban TikTok
Même si TikTok a promis d’héberger les données personnelles de ses utilisateurs américains aux Etats-Unis, chez Oracle, avec des règles d’accès rigoureuses pour éviter toute interference d’une puissance étrangère, les parlementaires craignent quecelles-ci ne partent en China..
Additionally, Democrats and Republicans criticize the dangers of child addiction and dangerous content. It is in fact easy to register on the social network falsely claiming to be 13 years old or more and on this social network everything is done to highlight videos that are often futile but have an addictive side.
The winds are carrying for the ban field. The House of Representatives will switch to the Republican side in January. This will increase the pressure on Joe Biden to make the hardest possible decision. The Democratic president himself has demonstrated his appetite for very protectionist texts against Chinese batteries, solar panels or semiconductor exports to China.
The pressure is building. Texas, South Dakota, South Carolina, Maryland followed Nebraska’s lead and banned their employees from using TikTok. The Indiana Attorney General has filed a data use and child protection lawsuit.
A particularly engaging network
FBI Director Christopher Wray entered the fray in November by publicly declaring he was “extremely concerned” that China might influence public opinion and harvest personal data through TikTok. The message was passed on to CFIUS, which monitors foreign investment, as part of its review of the merger between Bytedance and Musical.ly, the birth certificate of TikTok US in 2017.
TikTok has over 138 million monthly active users in the United States. This social network, which appeals to young people, is particularly engaging, with an average of ten times more time spent on the application than spent on Instagram. Users spend more time watching short videos made by other users than chatting with their friends.
A network that is “addictive” with “Russian propaganda”, according to Emmanuel Macron
Even in France we are wondering about the popular success of TikTok, vector of Chinese influence. Emmanuel Macron is active on the popular social network for very young people, with 3.2 million subscribers to his account. Last week, during a meeting with young mental health professionals, he highlighted the effectiveness of TikTok, an “addictive” network, which “knows exactly what you like” and “pushes hyper-well done things that are much more innovations of the Americans”. . There is nothing about Uyghur forced labor in Xinjiang, he stressed, because Beijing is looking at the grain. “That’s where you hid the Russian propaganda,” he added. On Wednesday, Eric Garandeau, one of the leaders of TikTok France, came to defend the content moderation policy: there is “about 1% of the content that is problematic,” he pleaded during a symposium at the National Assembly.
