The "Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act," which recently passed the U.S. House of Representatives, is having a major impact on the IT industry. In particular, TikTok, the main target of this bill, is expected to have a significant impact as a social media powerhouse with more than 100 million American users.
The central point of the bill is that it would ban apps controlled by “foreign hostile forces,” such as TikTok, from the United States. The "foreign hostile force" here actually refers to China, where the U.S. government is concerned that TikTok's parent company, ByteDance, has ties to the Chinese government and that TikTok may be providing data on American users to the Chinese government.
Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act.pdf62KB
From a national security perspective, the reason for this concern is that under China's National Intelligence Law, Chinese companies are obligated to provide data upon government request. In addition, TikTok collects a huge amount of user data, including location information and search history, and the key point of this bill submitted to the U.S. government and the House of Representatives is that this can be abused for surveillance and information collection by the Chinese government. Under President Trump, it was possible to make TikTok a separate subsidiary from ByteDance, but it was not a complete separation, so the United States said it would make TikTok a qualified divestment.
“Qualified divestiture” is presented as an important way for applications controlled by foreign adversaries to avoid bans in the United States. It means foreign companies completely separate their U.S. operations and free themselves from foreign influence. Simply put, for national security reasons, the business must be sold to a qualified company in the United States.
In fact, American TikTokers even protested against the U.S. House of Representatives.
But the TikTok ban on the other hand is raising a lot of concerns. Above all, TikTok's more than 100 million users are worried that their freedom and rights may be being violated. TikTok is more than just a video app, it has become a space for self-expression and creativity. In particular, for the MZ generation, TikTok is an important channel of communication and sometimes a source of economic opportunity. Influencers and creators are making money through TikTok, and small and medium-sized businesses are also actively using TikTok as a marketing platform.
In addition, some are criticizing whether this measure is part of domestic corporate protectionism. In a situation where TikTok is competing fiercely with American companies such as YouTube and Instagram, this bill could be abused as a means to protect the domestic industry.
So how should we view the TikTok situation? I believe this issue is not simply a TikTok issue, but an example of the complexity of national security in the digital age. Today, data flows across borders, creating subtle tensions between privacy, freedom of expression, and national security.
Of course, the cause of public safety and protection of national secrets cannot be taken lightly. But at the same time, we cannot neglect the values of individual freedom and rights and the dynamism of the global digital economy. Rather than a blanket ban on TikTok, it seems necessary to seek more detailed and balanced regulations. For example, measures to ensure safe storage and processing of data in the United States and to effectively block access by the Chinese government.
In fact, this is not the first time that the United States has withdrawn its services from China. - In 2017, when Ant Group (an Alibaba financial subsidiary) attempted to acquire MoneyGram, a startup specializing in remittances. - When iCarbonX, a Chinese video medical service, attempted to acquire PatientsLikeMe, an American patient platform. - When China's Shizen Group acquired StayNTouch, an American hotel management service. In all of the above, the acquisition itself was canceled or the aforementioned qualified sale was made due to data security reasons.
In the long term, global cooperation and establishment of norms encompassing data sovereignty, personal information protection, and national security will also be necessary. The digital economy is already moving across borders. Rather than unilateral regulation by individual countries, it is important for the international community to work together to create transparent and fair rules.
The TikTok incident will force us to seriously consider these fundamental questions. National security and individual freedom, data sovereignty and the global digital economy. How do we resolve the conflict and balance between these values? Although it is not an easy task, it seems clear that it is an important task that must be solved in our time.
