From Dance Trends to Data Dilemmas: TikTok’s Transformation into a Security Controversy in the US

As legislation that could potentially ban TikTok in the United States is set to come into effect, we examine the growth of this video-sharing social media service.

Origins

In 2016, ByteDance, headquartered in Beijing, introduced Douyin, an application for sharing brief videos, into the Chinese market.

The subsequent year, ByteDance launched TikTok for the global audience, shortly before acquiring the “lip-synching” app Musical.ly and integrating it into TikTok.

The platform quickly gained popularity, with its algorithm delivering an endless array of short, looped, and generally humorous videos uploaded by users.

Pandemic surge

The allure of TikTok surged during the Covid-19 pandemic declared in 2020, as individuals enduring lockdowns turned to the internet for distraction and amusement.

Consequently, authorities around the globe began scrutinizing TikTok’s sway and captivating nature.

TikTok became one of the most downloaded applications worldwide, with officials increasingly cautious about the potential for the Chinese government to influence ByteDance or access user data.

India prohibited TikTok in July 2020 owing to tensions with China.

Targeted by Trump

During Donald Trump’s presidency in 2020, he enacted executive orders to ban TikTok in the USA.

Trump accused TikTok, without evidence, of extracting US users’ data to benefit Beijing and of censoring content at the behest of Chinese authorities.

This decision was taken as his administration faced off against Beijing on numerous fronts.

Amid a failed re-election campaign in 2020, the Republican maintained an anti-China stance.

Due to legal challenges and Trump’s defeat to Joe Biden in that year’s presidential election, those executive orders did not come into force.

Billion milestone

In September 2021, TikTok declared it had one billion monthly users across the globe.

However, worries intensified about TikTok users encountering risks of addiction, propaganda, and surveillance.

In 2022, BuzzFeed reported that ByteDance employees situated in China had accessed TikTok users’ private information.

In an effort to alleviate privacy concerns, ByteDance hosted user data on servers managed in the United States by Oracle.

Yet, this action failed to assuage doubts, leading to TikTok being prohibited on devices utilized by the US military.

A variety of other governmental bodies and academic institutions followed suit, banning their members from using TikTok.

Shou Chew, TikTok’s CEO from Singapore, faced intense questioning from US Congress members during a six-hour hearing in March 2023.

Sell or exit

Once again, TikTok found itself in a precarious position in the United States in 2024 when President Joe Biden authorized legislation mandating TikTok’s ban unless ByteDance sells the application to a firm not linked to a national security rival.

The stated objective from Washington was to reduce the threat of Beijing spying on or manipulating TikTok users, specifically the 170 million American users of the app.

TikTok maintains its position that it has never shared user information with the Chinese government or acted upon its instructions within the social platform.

ByteDance initiated legal action against the US government, claiming the legislation infringes upon free speech rights.

A resolution in that matter was reached on Friday by the US Supreme Court, which upheld a law set to take effect on January 19.

In a significant setback for TikTok, the court determined that the law does not contravene free speech rights and that the US government presented valid national security concerns regarding a Chinese enterprise owning the application.

President-elect Trump, returning to office on Monday, has indicated he might step in on TikTok’s behalf.

Nevertheless, the company has conveyed that unless the outgoing Biden administration provides “definitive” guarantees that the law will not be enforced, it would be compelled to “go dark.”

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Header image: Giovanna Gonzalez of Chicago demonstratively protesting outside the US Capitol following a press conference by TikTok creators voicing their dissent against the “Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act,” potential restrictive legislation on TikTok in the House of Representatives, on Capitol Hill in Washington, US on March 12, 2024. — Reuters