The U.S. House of Representatives voted 352-65 on March 13, 2024, to require TikTok’s parent company, China-based ByteDance, to sell the app or ban TikTok nationwide. President Joe Biden said on March 8 that he would sign the legislation if it reaches his desk.
The popular video social media app had 149 million users in the US as of January 2024. Many have contacted Congress to protest the possibility of a ban.
The bill’s fate in the Senate is uncertain. It’s also unclear whether any resulting legislation will survive court challenge.
On May 17, 2023, Montana Governor Greg Gianforte signed legislation banning TikTok in the state, the first full ban by a U.S. state government. The law would impose daily fines of $10,000 on any app store that offers TikTok, and on the app maker itself if it operates in the state. Individual users will not be subject to penalties. The law was scheduled to go into effect on January 1, 2024, but a federal judge blocked it pending a hearing to determine whether the state overstepped its authority and whether the law violated the First Amendment.
The federal government, along with many state and foreign governments and some companies, have already banned TikTok from business phones. Such a ban could be effective in protecting data related to government affairs.
But a complete national ban of the app is another matter, and this raises some questions: What data privacy risk does TikTok pose? What could the Chinese government do with the data collected by the app? Is the content recommendation algorithm dangerous? Is it legal for a government to ban the practice entirely? So is it possible to ban an app?
Vacuum data
As a cybersecurity researcher, I’ve noticed that every few years a new popular mobile app raises security, privacy, and data access issues.
Apps collect data for a variety of reasons. Sometimes the data is used to improve the application for users. But most apps collect data that companies use in part to fund their operations. This revenue usually comes from targeting users with ads based on the data they collect. The questions this data usage raises are: Does the app need all this data? What does it do with the data? So how does it protect data from others?
So what makes TikTok different from Pokemon-GO, Facebook, or even your phone itself? TikTok’s privacy policy, which few people read, is a good place to start. Overall, the company isn’t very transparent about its practices. The document is too long to list all the data it collects here; This should be a warning.
There are several items of interest in TikTok’s privacy policy, aside from the information you give them when you create an account (name, age, username, password, language, email, phone number, social media account information, and profile picture). This information; It includes location data, data from your clipboard, contact information, website tracking, as well as any data you send through the app and messages you send. The company claims that current versions of the app do not collect GPS information from US users.
If most apps collect data, why are governments worried about TikTok? First, they are concerned about the Chinese government accessing the data of TikTok’s 150 million users in the United States. There are also concerns about the algorithms TikTok uses to display content.
The data is in the hands of the Chinese government
If the data falls into the hands of the Chinese government, the question is how it can use it to its advantage. The government can share this with other companies in China to help them make profits; This is no different than US companies sharing marketing data. The Chinese government is known to play the long game, and data is power, so if it is collecting data it could take years to find out how it benefits China.
One potential threat is that the Chinese government uses data to spy on people, especially those who have access to valuable information. The Department of Justice is investigating TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, for using the app to monitor US journalists. The Chinese government has an extensive history of hacking U.S. government agencies and companies, and many of these hacks have been facilitated by social engineering, the practice of using data about people to trick them into revealing more information.
The second issue raised by the US government is algorithm bias or algorithm manipulation. TikTok and most social media apps have algorithms designed to learn a user’s interests and then attempt to adjust content to keep the user using the app. Since TikTok does not share its algorithm, it is unclear how the app selects the user’s content.
The algorithm may be biased in a way that makes a population believe certain things. There are numerous allegations that TiKTok’s algorithm is biased, can reinforce negative sentiment among young users, and can be used to influence public opinion. The algorithm’s manipulative behavior may be unintentional, but there are concerns that the Chinese government is using or may use the algorithm to influence people.
Can a government ban an app?
The pending Montana law aims to use fines to force companies to enforce the ban. It’s unclear whether companies will comply, and it’s unlikely to deter users from finding workarounds.
Meanwhile, if the federal government concludes that TikTok should be banned, is it possible to ban it for all 149 million current US users? Such a ban would most likely begin with blocking distribution of the app through Apple and Google’s app stores. This may keep many users away from the platform, but there are other ways to download and install apps for those determined to use them.
A more drastic method would be to force Apple and Google to change their phones to prevent TikTok from working. Although I am not a lawyer, I think this effort will fail due to legal challenges involving First Amendment concerns. As a result, an absolute ban would be difficult to implement.
There are also questions about how effective a ban would be, even if it were possible. By some estimates, the Chinese government has already collected personal information on at least 80% of the US population through various means. So a ban could limit the damage going forward to some extent, but the Chinese government has already collected a significant amount of data. The Chinese government, along with anyone with money, has access to a vast market for personal data, fueling calls for stronger data privacy rules.
Are you at risk?
So, as an average user, should you be worried? Again, it is unclear what data ByteDance collects and whether it could harm an individual. I believe the most significant risks are to those in power, whether that be political power or within the company. Their data and information can be used to gain access to other data or potentially compromise the organizations they are associated with.
The aspect of TikTok that I find most worrying is its algorithm, which decides what videos users see and how this may affect vulnerable groups, especially young people. Regardless of the ban, families should talk about TikTok and other social media platforms and how they can harm mental health. These conversations should focus on how to determine if the practice is leading you down an unhealthy path.
This is an updated version of an article first published on March 23, 2023 and updated on May 18, 2023.
This article is republished from The Conversation, an independent, nonprofit news organization providing facts and authoritative analysis to help you understand our complex world. Written by: Doug Jacobson, Iowa State University
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Doug Jacobson does not work for, consult, own shares in, or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond his academic duties.