TikTok Dies in Washington, TikTok Lives in Brussels
In a rare moment of political consensus, the US Congress passed a bill requiring TikTok owner ByteDance to sell to a non-Chinese purchaser within 270 days or see the popular app banned. Both Democrats and Republicans want to reduce Chinese influence. A similar fate to TikTok may await other Chinese apps operating within the US.
Across the ocean, the European Union demurs. It prefers to deploy its regulatory toolkit to deal with TikTok’s danger of data theft and disinformation. While European Commission President Ursula Van der Leyen has not ruled out a ban, Europe is focusing on pursuing TikTok for breaches of its General Data Protection Regulation and its Digital Services Act’s content moderation rules.
Transatlantic attitudes to China and Chinese tech are converging. Both want to “derisk,” not “decouple.” But divergences remain on how to achieve this goal, and the TikTok tussle underlines them. No broad US technology laws exist compared to Europe’s Digital Services Act or its sibling, the Digital Markets Act.
The EU has already passed an AI Act. Some 91 bills to regulate artificial intelligence have been tabled in the US Congress. None have reached the President for signature. When it regulates, the EU does not distinguish between TikTok and large US competitors Facebook and YouTube — a situation that infuriates some US policymakers and tech firms.
TikTok’s efforts to assuage US data security concerns failed. A pop-up encouraging US businesses and creators that rely on TikTok to contact their local congressperson — including a handy ‘call now’ option — produced a wave of protest. Instead of defeating the ban, it reinforced the perception that the Chinese-owned app was too powerful.
Although the app campaign to rally its user base backfired, it highlighted the demand for TikTok. When TikTok exploded on the scene it inspired Meta to introduce Instagram Reels and Google to launch YouTube Shorts. TikTok continues to add new users in the US and beyond — German Chancellor Olaf Scholz amongst them. There will be a queue of potential purchasers for TikTok’s powerful recommendation algorithm.
Before a sale takes place, TikTok looks set to appeal the US ban, arguing that in court its ban violates the First Amendment. The Chinese government has said TikTok cannot be sold without its permission — which it will not grant. If a rival social media platform did have a bid accepted — a massive ‘if’ — US, European and UK regulators must approve. That will be difficult. China is no stranger to banning apps and it may retaliate with further bans on US tech firms.
Europe has tools in its arsenal that the US lacks, including the General Data Protection Regulation. It regulates how companies can collect, use, and send data to other countries. TikTok’s main European data protection watchdog, the Irish Data Protection Commission, has been investigating the company since 2021 for potentially unlawfully shipping users’ data to China. No verdict yet has been announced.
Perhaps more important, the new Digital Services Act is arguably the democratic world’s most aggressive regulation to curb illegal speech and disinformation. Unlike the US, Europe has no First Amendment. Some speech is considered outright illegal, such as Holocaust denial in Germany.
The Digital Services Act requires Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, and TikTok, among other internet platforms to police their platforms. They must combat disinformation, hate speech, and terrorist propaganda, stop amplifying divisive content, and block online ads based on a person’s ethnicity, religion, or sexual orientation. If companies fall short, they risk billions of dollars in fines and potential suspension.
European regulators already have opened up investigations under the new law into TikTok. So far, they have focused on protecting teenagers from the app’s additive features and dangerous content They have forced TikTok to withdraw a feature that rewarded frequent users with Amazon coupons.
What they have not yet done is investigate Chinese influence or leverage. In contrast, the regulators recently opened a probe into Facebook and Instagram for its policies around political ads and its alleged failure to counter a Russian campaign to influence the European Parliament in June. Under the new law, platforms must clearly label political ads and be transparent about their algorithms. Regulators have asked Meta about deep fakes, its new ad-free subscription model, its Threads app, and how it limits the visibility of some accounts or posts, known as shadow banning.
Another Digital Services Act case targets X, formerly known as Twitter, for failing to stop disinformation and hate speech. Although owner Elon Musk has committed to complying with Europe’s new disinformation rules, he has fired almost all of its trust and safety team, including many of the company’s European policy officials. He also pulled out of the EU’s code of practice on disinformation.
Whatever happens to TikTok will not resolve the risks of disinformation surrounding social media. After India banned TikTok, a flurry of TikTok clones appeared. Users migrated to Shorts and Reels and the more tech-savvy will find workarounds to keep using TikTok. Short-form videos will survive, and people will want to watch them. The challenges of harmful content and data security remain — for both Europeans and Americans.
Ronan Murphy is the Director of CEPA’s Digital Innovation Initiative.
Bandwidth is CEPA’s online journal dedicated to advancing transatlantic cooperation on tech policy. All opinions are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the position or views of the institutions they represent or the Center for European Policy Analysis.
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