The debate over TikTok erupts with force in the US presidential race.

The race for the presidency of U.S continues to add ingredients to the debate between Joe Biden It is donald trump, the virtual nominees of the Democratic and Republican parties, respectively. And this time TikTok adds to the list of issues that place both political leaders on opposite sides.

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A bill that conditions ByteDance, the Chinese controller of the famous social network, to sell the application to an American company within 180 days was approved this week by an overwhelming majority in the Chamber of Deputies. Now the text must be voted on in the Senate and subsequently ratified by Biden.

The president has already announced that he supports the so-called “Protecting Americans from Controlled Orders by Foreign Rivals Act” and that he will not hesitate to sign it once it passes through both chambers. In the Senate, however, there are still doubts after the Senate majority leader, Democrat Chuck Schumer, did not indicate whether he supports the proposal.

As has rarely been seen in recent times, it is a bipartisan law promoted by Republican Mike Gallagher and Democrat Raja Krishnamoorthi. If ByteDance decides not to sell TikTok to an American company, the application will be banned in the country on the grounds that it poses a threat to national security because it is “controlled by the Communist Party of China (CCP)”.

TikTok criticized the process and called it an attempt to “ban” the platform that has 170 million users in the United States. The Chinese government, in turn, claimed that “the United States has never found evidence that TikTok threatens national security” and called the project “intimidating behavior”.

“It’s an important question because TikTok is the tip of the iceberg. This has geopolitical implications because the reason for the distrust or possible threat that this application represents for the United States is the competition for the future of the world between the two great economic powers and the markets”, he comments to The trade political analyst and UCLA professor Octavio Pescador.

TikTok once again finds itself in the middle of the rivalry between the United States and China. (OLIVIER DOULIERY/AFP/)

The United States denounces that ByteDance is at the mercy of control applied by the PCC, which, according to Washington, puts the security of its citizens at risk and makes them vulnerable to espionage techniques used through the application.

“In other times, spies and intelligence were obtained through specialized people; informants were hired so that a government would know where threats could come from or obtain different information. Now this happens autonomously with the unimaginable amount of data that exists about each of us available on the Internet. Every time we subscribe to a social media application we accept the terms of service, we allow a machine to have all the information that was previously requested from a spy”, says Pescador.

In this sense, it is of little use, for example, ByteDance partnered with the company Oracle to store user data from that country on servers located in the United States.

“The current notion of communism in the United States, more than being an economic part, remained an ideological part of control and disrespect for freedoms, it was reduced to that because everyone is economically capitalist. According to this view, if you give freedom to a company to which a dangerous adversary has access, you would be exposing your society. We have already seen this with Huawei and it does not necessarily refer to the company going and giving the information in this case to the Chinese Communist Party but rather that an agent of theirs can enter the company and obtain the information. The fact of having this vulnerability with a geopolitical adversary represents a threat to the United States”, explains the analyst.

This is not the first time that TikTok has found itself in the middle of the American political storm and faced blocking attempts. In late 2020, when Trump still occupied the White House, he threatened to veto the request, citing the same risks to national security, although he never presented evidence to support the allegations. On that occasion, however, the North American courts blocked the measure.

Now, surprisingly, the virtual Republican candidate has spoken out against the project against TikTok. On Monday the 11th, Trump assured that although the application has many bad things, a possible veto “would make Facebook and others, but especially Facebook” benefit. The millionaire, whose accounts were blocked on several social networks after the assault on the Capitol in January 2021, describes Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, as “an enemy of the people along with many media outlets”.

Trump, who tried to ban TikTok in 2020, is now opposing the law against the social network.

“In political terms, one of the most effective messages, especially for neoconservatism led by Trump, are memes, short sarcastic or critical videos. And TikTok is the most used platform for this. So much so that Biden’s campaign, even though it is in favor of the veto, is also present there. As long as it’s on the market, they’ll use it,” says Pescador.

The expert was not surprised by Trump’s change of position, as he assures that “politicians want to win at almost any cost”.

“In practice, politicians can make arguments that may even be contradictory to favor their interests. Today they are for something and tomorrow against the same thing. On the other hand, there is a double standard, the West has always taken advantage of its spies and now that others do so, they want to stop it at any cost”, says Pescador.

Biden, on the other hand, has been quite firm in his desire to pass the law. But this could represent a high political cost for a candidate who already faces popularity problems.

A poll published in December 2023 by The New York Times found that just 43% of 18- to 29-year-olds would support Biden electorally, compared to 49% who leaned toward Trump. Another poll conducted by the Harvard Kennedy School showed that this has affected the president even among his base, with only 62% of Democrats aged 18 to 29 willing to vote for him in 2024.

On the other hand, all the controversy surrounding TikTok has divided American citizens: 31% of adults support the ban, 35% are against it and 31% do not opt ​​for either option, according to a survey carried out in February by the Associated Press and the NORC Center.

Biden’s support for the law against TikTok could represent a high political cost for him in the face of the November elections.

For Pescador, a decision of this type, which would mainly affect young people, is more likely to deal a blow to Democrats. “Young people generally participate less in American elections, but there is a risk of discontent and rebellion. When there are elections that do not have this type of incentive, those most affected are usually Democrats because Republicans tend to have older voters. On the other hand, young people could take a position similar to the case of Gaza, in addition to voting or not, they could go to demonstrations to close the streets to the candidate as they did during the State of the Union speech,” Explain.

The analyst also highlights that it is necessary to measure not only the impact this would have on the president, but also on other positions, such as parliamentarians. “Let us also remember that the participation of voters and their legislators counts a lot here and there have already been appeals to all deputies not to approve this project”, adds Pescador.

Source: Elcomercio