THIS WEEK IN CULTURE + THE CULTURE BUSINESS
News Briefing: Possible TikTok bans
Earlier this year US Congress passed a law ordering TikTok owner ByteDance to sell the short form video app or face a ban within the country. The deadline set for a sale was 19 Jan next year.
TikTok is fighting the law through the courts, with a ruling expected next month. Meanwhile, there has been much speculation that Donald Trump‘s win in the recent US election might result in the law being canned.
In this week’s News Briefing, we explain why a ByteDance-owned TikTok has caused so much concern around the world, how the US sell-or-be-banned law works, and what Trump’s election win might mean for the future of TikTok in the US.
Plus how can creators that use TikTok as a content or marketing platform future proof themselves with all of this uncertainty?
WHAT’S THE PROBLEM WITH TIKTOK?
TikTok is owned by China-based ByteDance. Concerns have been expressed in multiple countries that the Chinese government has access to TikTok user-data and influence over the app’s algorithm via ByteDance.
Both TikTok and ByteDance have repeatedly denied those allegations, while reassuring concerned law-makers and political leaders that TikTok user data is not stored on servers in China.
However, media investigations have shown that ByteDance employees in China do – or at least did – have access to at least some of that data.
In response, multiple governments have banned their officials from using the TikTok app on government issued devices. Some politicians have also proposed going further than that and outright banning use of TikTok within their countries.
India introduced such a ban in 2020.
THE USA’S SELL-OR-BE-BANNED LAW
Concerns had been raised about TikTok in US Congress by both Republican and Democrat politicians for some time. Earlier this year formal proposals were put forward to address those concerns.
Those proposals took the form of a sell-or-be-banned law. Basically, ByteDance must sell TikTok to a company without formal ties to China or other countries that pose national security threats by a predetermined date, otherwise use and distribution of the app will be banned in the US.
The sell-or-be-banned law was passed by both the House Of Representatives and Senate, and signed into law by President Joe Biden, in April this year, with ByteDance being given 270 days to sell TikTok, making the deadline 19 Jan 2025.
ByteDance is adamant that a sale will not happen. Firstly, any sale would cause political issues for the company back in China. Secondly, just selling off the TikTok US business – which has been proposed as a compromise – is, according to ByteDance, not viable, because splitting up the TikTok platform in that way would be technically difficult and negatively impact on the user-experience.
Therefore, ByteDance argues, the sell-or-be-banned law is basically a ban. And that, it claims, is unconstitutional, because it breaches the free speech rights of its users under the First Amendment of the US Constitution.
To that end, TikTok is fighting the sell-or-be-banned law through the US courts, alongside a group of TikTok creators. The US government has presented various arguments as to why it believes TikTok’s free speech claims do not stand up.
The court overseeing the dispute is expected to make a ruling early next month. Whichever side loses will almost certainly appeal to the Supreme Court, which is expected to give the case priority, ruling on it before the 19 Jan 2025 deadline.
THE TRUMP EFFECT
During his first stint as US President, Donald Trump actually tried to ban use of TikTok via executive order. TikTok also went to court to try to block that ban, employing more or less the same free speech arguments as in the current dispute. That legal action successfully delayed the order going into effect and, after Biden became President in 2021, he withdrew the order.
During this year’s election campaign, Trump was critical of the sell-or-be-banned law, at various points pledging to “save TikTok” if he got elected. The change in position may simply be because Biden backed the sell-or-be-banned law.
Although Trump has also indicated that he opposes a TikTok ban because, if TikTok ceased to operate in the US market, that would benefit Instagram, its owner Meta and CEO Mark Zuckerberg, and Trump hates Meta and Zuckerberg.
All of that means that Trump’s win in the US election this month has put the sell-or-be-banned law into doubt. Even if the US courts rule that the law is constitutional, the new US government could look to reverse it.
That said, some of Trump’s cabinet picks will take a hardline position against China, and the TikTok ban is allied with that position. Also, Trump’s nomination for the Chair of the Federal Communications Commission, Brendan Carr, has been an outspoken critic of TikTok and big supporter of the sell-or-be-banned law.
The FCC doesn’t directly regulate tech companies and digital platforms, although it does oversee things like broadband access and net neutrality. And if Carr’s appointment is approved, he seems likely to be an FCC Chair that will be openly critical of big tech, and especially TikTok, potentially influencing the positions taken by Trump’s government, including in relation to the ban.
So, as it currently stands, it’s hard to predict what will happen to TikTok in the US in 2025 – will the ban ultimately go ahead or will something happen that stops it?
BEYOND THE USA
While India banned TikTok in 2020, in other countries the bans have only usually impacted on government employees. The European Union has investigated whether TikTok is compliant with rules under the relatively new Digital Services Act, but hasn’t yet considered any kind of ban that would impact on all consumers.
Earlier this month, the Canadian government ordered TikTok to shut down its operations in the country over national security concerns, though distribution and use of the social media app will not be banned.
Canada’s Innovation Minister François-Philippe Champagne told CBC News that the decision to force the closure of TikTok’s two Canadian offices, in Toronto and Vancouver, was made based on “information and evidence that surfaced during a national security review” and had been instigated at “the advice of Canada’s security and intelligence community”.
However, he added that it’s not for the government to stop Canadians from using TikTok if they want to. But, he insisted, people should be aware of the risks associated with the app and use it “with eyes wide open”.
WHAT DOES IT MEAN FOR CREATORS?
What does this all mean for individual creators who are building an audience – and possibly generating income – on TikTok, or other cultural organisations that are using TikTok as a marketing tool?
Well, given the unknowns, the main message is to not rely too heavily on a single platform as a content or marketing platform. If TikTok is banned in the US, other platforms will look to fill the gap, with Instagram and YouTube Shorts most likely to benefit from TikTok being removed from the market.
Therefore, creators and marketeers should use a mix of platforms at any one time, meaning they are future proofed if and when any one platform goes into decline, for whatever reason, or is cut off entirely because of government intervention.