That 2020 government order got here to nothing ultimately—it was blocked within the courts, put apart after the presidency modified arms, and ultimately withdrawn by the Biden administration. But the concept—that the US authorities ought to ban TikTok not directly—by no means went away. It will repeatedly be advised in several varieties and shapes. And ultimately, on April 24, 2024, issues got here full circle.
Quite a bit has modified within the 4 years between these two information cycles. Again then, TikTok was a rising sensation that many individuals didn’t perceive; now, it’s one of many greatest social media platforms, the originator of a generation-defining content material medium, and a music-industry juggernaut.
What has additionally modified is my outlook on the difficulty. For a very long time, I believed TikTok would discover a method out of the political tensions, however I’m more and more pessimistic about its future. And I’ve even much less hope for different Chinese language tech firms making an attempt to go international. If the TikTok saga tells us something, it’s that their Chinese language roots might be scrutinized perpetually, it doesn’t matter what they do.
I don’t consider TikTok has develop into a bigger safety risk now than it was in 2020. There have all the time been points with the app, like potential operational affect by the Chinese language authorities, the black-box algorithms that produce unpredictable outcomes, and the truth that dad or mum firm ByteDance by no means managed to separate the US aspect and the China aspect cleanly, regardless of efforts (one known as Mission Texas) to retailer and course of American knowledge regionally.
However none of these issues received worse over the past 4 years. And apparently, whereas discussions in 2020 nonetheless revolved round potential treatments like establishing knowledge facilities within the US to retailer American knowledge or having a corporation like Oracle audit operations, these sorts of fixes are usually not within the regulation handed this yr. So long as it nonetheless has Chinese language house owners, the app is just not permissible within the US. The one factor it might do to outlive right here is switch possession to a US entity.
That’s the chilly, onerous reality not just for TikTok however for different Chinese language firms too. In right now’s political local weather, any affiliation with China and the Chinese language authorities is seen as unacceptable. It’s a far cry from the 2010s, when Chinese language firms may dream about growing a killer app and discovering audiences and buyers across the globe—one thing many did pull off.
There’s one thing I wrote 4 years in the past that also rings true right now: TikTok is the bellwether for Chinese language firms making an attempt to go international.
Nearly all of Chinese language tech giants, like Alibaba, Tencent, and Baidu, function primarily inside China’s borders. TikTok was the primary to realize mass recognition in plenty of different international locations the world over and develop into a part of each day life for individuals exterior China. To many Chinese language startups, it confirmed that the onerous work of making an attempt to find out about overseas international locations and customers can ultimately repay, and it’s well worth the time and funding to attempt.
