WASHINGTON DC – JANUARY 17: Jacob Smith records a video talking about banning Tik Tok and asking … [+]
The story of TikTok, which may be almost over, offers many lessons for policymakers. Voters are learning.
The Americans have shown that they will not accept threats to national security. They want details. Lawmakers reportedly met for a top-secret briefing on the dangers posed by TikTok before voting in favor of the bill in March. At the time, protesters outside Capitol Hill who opposed the ban were not made aware of his findings.
Confidentiality has consequences. We saw this week that Americans are willing to directly counter lawmakers’ threat rhetoric toward China by migrating from US-based and managed TikTok to the entirely Chinese-run lifestyle app Xiaohongshu.
Lawmakers can also gauge the degree to which Americans are fed up with the nation’s Big Tech. As one user said, “I’d rather watch a language I can’t understand than ever use a social media [platform] that Mark Zuckerberg owns.”
Hypocrisy may also have played a role in US users’ decision not to fill TikTok’s void with native apps. Many have made the astute argument that Americans would be much better served by a data privacy law than a ban on TikTok. Congressional support for the latter without the former is understood as disingenuous—many might conclude that the government cares enough to make its data inaccessible to its geopolitical rival, but domestic firms may have. Boycotting Meta is one way to get along.
If passed, the data protection could extend beyond social media and into the US drone market, an area where lawmakers are also keen to limit access by Chinese firms. The Commerce Department is considering a rule that would ban Chinese drones (industry comments are due March 4).
In some ways, the proposed drone rule is at least more consistent in its logic than the TikTok ban because it targets all Chinese-origin drones rather than one company. Since China’s DJI dominates the US drone market, legislation targeting one firm is plausible; in fact, a bill that does just that was introduced by Rep. Elise Stefanik in April and is currently under review.
Now, some lawmakers are pushing back, arguing that TikTok needs more time to find a buyer. Their change of heart reflects inappropriate practical barriers to suddenly cutting off access to a popular platform. While not as powerful an area as TikTok’s 170 million US-based users, the American drone community is equally enthusiastic and broadly united in the assessment that there is no comparable alternative to DJI for the consumer market. Even the New York Times Wirecutter recommends DJI.
The actual and potential chaos of these actions are only part of the reason they are firm-based AND Bans based on nationality miss the point. Rather than committing to limited action against Chinese drones, for example, lawmakers have a responsibility to provide Americans with adequate protections for today’s much broader technological reality. Data protection laws, which exist in the European Union and, ironically, in China, are an imperfect but necessary starting point.
If Congress continues to sidestep fundamental issues in favor of politically expedient sanctions against China, then they will continue to fail to convince the public that they are acting in its best interest.
Case in point: TikTok users moved to Xiaohongshu mostly out of anger. Their presence there is likely to be short-lived, but it shows how much Americans — those living outside Washington’s fiercely anti-China bubble — feel about the government’s choice to prioritize its competition with China over their own rights. . as consumers.
