As the US Congress pushes for a total ban on TikTok, the ‘application (app) diplomatic war’ is in full swing. Experts believe that the ban on TikTok is just the beginning, and will accelerate the exit movement targeting other Chinese apps.
On the 25th (local time), the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported that the US House Energy and Commerce Committee hearing held on the 23rd was a place to show that apps like TikTok have emerged as a front-running issue the war in the US. -China conflict The preliminary was found to be open.
So far, there has been no clear evidence that TikTok user data has been handed over to the Chinese government, but US politicians continue to expand the scope of the ban on TikTok for ‘security’ reasons. Last month, the US government ordered the removal of the TikTok app from all public electronic devices. Democratic Senator Mark Warner went one step further and announced the day before that a bill to ban TikTok had secured support from 10 opposition and opposition lawmakers each. It is spreading as a move to completely ban TikTok from every American’s smartphone.
The WSJ explained that it was only necessary to control the cross-border goods in the trade wars in the past, but now the era has opened when it is necessary to control the flow of software and related technologies. The US government, which has been in a trade conflict with China, initially stopped restricting imports of Chinese hardware such as Huawei, but is now banning the use of Chinese apps such as ‘TikTok’. Some argue that the ban on TikTok in the United States follows China’s precedent under the principle of technology protectionism, as China has already banned the use of Facebook and other apps made in the United States or other countries in its country.
There were also comments that if the TikTok ban law was passed, not only TikTok but also other Chinese apps like Alipay and WeChat could be banned from the US. “There is a possibility that every popular Chinese app in the United States will be banned,” Glenn Gestel, who worked as an adviser to the US National Security Agency (NSA), predicted to the WSJ. “This may not be limited to China.” Apps made not only in China but also in other countries can also be banned in the US at any time if the US government determines that they pose a threat to ‘security national’. Furthermore, the WSJ predicted that the US could ask its allies, such as Australia and Japan, to join the movement to ban TikTok, citing the possibility of a security threat from the Chinese app.
There have already been cases where disputes between countries have led to ‘app bans’. India has banned more than 100 Chinese apps since a bloody clash with China over the disputed Himalayan region in 2020.
It was also interpreted that the move to ban TikTok in the United States is to gain an advantage in technology competition with China. TikTok, which has 1.8 billion users worldwide, is said to have used ‘security’ as an excuse to be cautious when the influence of American companies waned as TikTok gained dominance in the global app market.
However, some point out that the US has limits in pushing the TikTok ban law, which could infringe on the ‘freedom of expression’, which is the 1st Amendment to the Constitution. Democratic Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who is actually a progressive, posted a video opposing TikTok’s withdrawal on her TikTok account the day before, arguing that “we must first accurately identify the threat to national security and then discuss whether to withdraw.”
CNN said, “Recently, the discussion on banning TikTok, which takes place on the line of deepening conflicts between the United States and China, such as Chinese spy balloons, trade conflicts, and the visit of Chinese President Xi Jinping to Russia, is showing the deepening cold. war between the United States and China.” “If TikTok must be banned for the reason of protecting the information and privacy of Americans, the same standard should be applied to other American social networking service (SNS) companies such as Facebook and Twitter,” he pointed out.
> Activate JavaScript to write a comment in LiveRe.
