On Friday, the President of the United States declared that he plans to prohibit a lively source of American speech. Which he means to remove competitors in a huge market that doesn’t have almost enough. It’s an uncommon accomplishment to upturn two such essential democratic values– complimentary speech and free markets– at the very same time.
TikTok’s fate in the US remains uncertain. Trump’s statements could be part of a negotiating strategy, with the desired objective of getting Bytedance, TikTok’s Chinese parent business, eliminated totally from the platform’s ownership. Microsoft may then swoop in Trump’s suggested executive order could face legal review, and TikTok has vowed that it’s “not intending on going anywhere.” Regardless of how this all shakes out, the president’s declaration stinks of rank hypocrisy.
It’s certainly real that all Chinese companies need to play footsie with the state, sharing information if and when the judgment Communist Celebration demands it. (TikTok has actually regularly denied that it has actually done so.) It holds true, too, that the Chinese government of Xi Jinping does not wish the United States well, which its hacking and espionage operations have deep and sinister roots. It’s true that wise individuals have raised valid issues about TikTok’s security: any company that copies what you put on your clipboard is one that is worthy of really little trust. But that’s a reason to ban the app on the phones of American soldiers and diplomats, and it’s reason to alert others about the dangers. It’s an argument, too, that United States information personal privacy laws are woefully insufficient to protect people from data over-reaches by any app, regardless of the country of origin. The public proof that TikTok is an essential, and special, threat to US security is just not there
TikTok, nevertheless, is a danger to Facebook: It’s a genuine competitor that has had the ability to thrive without being captured or eliminated. Throughout the antitrust hearings on Wednesday, one of Congress’s main critiques was that Facebook utilizes all the secret info it collects to ferret out its nascent opposition “Will [Zuckerberg] go into ruin mode if I state no?” Instagram creator Kevin Systrom asked among his board members, Matt Cohler, while going over a prospective Facebook acquisition of his business. “Probably,” came the reply, according to a memo launched during the hearings.
