TikTok caught in the mad fray of U.S. politics

Editor's note: Radhika Desai, a special commentator on current affairs for CGTN, is a professor of political studies at the University of Manitoba in Canada. The article reflects the author's opinions and not necessarily the views of CGTN.

A new presidential election year has produced a new attack on Tiktok.

Former U.S. President Donald Trump's proposed ban on TikTok in 2020 was overturned by the current U.S. President Joe Biden, in an early indication that he would double down on, rather than reverse, aggression toward China, he also ordered an investigation into whether the platform was a threat to national security.

By 2021, reports claiming it was such a threat began appearing, though without convincing evidence. Even so, TikTok started routing U.S. user data via U.S. tech firm, Oracle. However, the allegations kept coming and now a bill is moving at speed through the House to ban Tiktok in much the same way that Trump had proposed. Either Tiktok's parent company, Bytedance, the target of the unfounded accusations of endangering U.S. national security, "divests from," that is to say, sells off TikTok, presumably to U.S. buyers, within 165 days of the act being passed, or faces a ban.

This time around, the threat to TikTok is allegedly more serious: Lawmakers have had four years to learn how not to make some mistakes, the proposed bill is bipartisan, and the Biden administration has proved, if anything, more anti-China than its predecessor.

Of course, passage is not guaranteed. Senate may prove recalcitrant. Many questions hang around how a ban might be enforced. And, above all, TikTok is popular.

Indeed, it is so popular that, its overwhelmingly young users, many in their maiden political act, are inundating members of Congress with calls to not ban TikTok. Even more ironically, President Biden himself has had to acknowledge TikTok's power and acquire an account. After all, his approval ratings are plumbing depths lower than all recent incumbents except the hapless Jimmy Carter and previously reliable Democratic constituencies, such as the young, are increasingly to the party, particularly over Gaza. So every bit helps, and a TikTok account is a rather big bit. 

So, why target TikTok at all? The answer lies in the descent of U.S. politics into ever more refined forms of madness and chaos, with multiple forces pulling actors this way and that, in tangential and even opposed directions. Indeed, in all directions other than that of democracy, of reflecting the popular will. 

While TikTok's popularity is not to be ignored in an election year, if the people's wishes determined political outcomes, the U.S. would have long become a socialist paradise. In the topsy-turvy real world of U.S. politics, there are many other competing considerations. Two stand out in particular.

First, the compulsion to target China has, since Donald Trump scored his historic victory, emerged directly from the need to pursue neoliberal policies. They benefit giant U.S. corporations while subjecting the mass of working Americans to low growth, bad employment, stagnant wages, rising inequality and increasing debt. Telling discontented Americans that China is the cause of their woes is the chief way to hide the fact that the pro-corporate neoliberal policies are at fault.

Secondly, there are the wishes of the big funders whose money U.S. politicians need if they are to win elections by fooling enough of the people enough of the time with their anti-China rhetoric.

If it were that simple, China's targeting would be a straightforward affair. But it is not. U.S. funders are divided. After decades of economic engagement with China, inevitably, large parts of the U.S. economy, including big tech and its leading companies like Microsoft, Apple, Tesla and Qualcomm, are heavily invested in China. Their CEOs were among the first to visit China after the COVID-19 pandemic and do not support the targeting of China. Many even wonder if Apple, for instance, would enforce a ban on TikTok if it came to that.

However, some others, particularly firms and subsectors threatened by Chinese competition, are driving the anti-China campaign. Meta is foremost among them. It powers moves against TikTok, alongside the military-industrial complex. Meta, with its copy-cat Reels feature on its Instagram photo-sharing app, also stands to benefit most from the proposed legislation in market share and investor interest terms. This is why Trump has flip-flopped on Tiktok. His original stance against TikTok was part of his generic diversionary tactic – to blame China not neoliberalism for U.S. economic woes. Now, however, as a victim of the "globalist" Meta, he thinks it is "a true Enemy of the People!" 

Finally, if Bytedance was forced to sell TikTok – and we are a long way from it – potential buyers – Microsoft, Oracle and Walmart were all interested in 2020 – could benefit from a "distress sale," no matter if they were among those favoring closer ties with China or those hostile to it, including Meta.

These are the stormy waves in which TikTok is being tossed in a U.S. election year.

(If you want to contribute and have specific expertise, please contact us at opinions@cgtn.com. Follow @thouse_opinions on Twitter to discover the latest commentaries in the CGTN Opinion Section.)