23 / 32
Features
23
WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 5, 2020
NEWYORK (AP) — The latest twist in the TikTok saga is
an especially strange turn in a tale illed with strange
turns. Suddenly, Microsoft — known primarily for work
software like Windows and Ofice — is in talks to buy
the popular Chinese-owned video app, which has
raised national-security concerns for United States
(US) oficials.
TheUSgovernmentiseffectivelyforcingByteDance,
TikTok’s owner, to sell so it can salvage the app in the
US, a huge and valuable market. US President Donald
Trump has threatened a “ban” on TikTok and other
administration oficials and US lawmakers of both
parties have said the app’s Chinese ownership is
a concern.
It’s unclear what shape such a ban would take or
whether the sale will go through. TikTok’s users are
posting videos saying they are upset and angry. Here’s
what’s at stake.
Q.
What is TikTok again?
A.
The app is a home for fun, goofy videos that are
easy to make and to watch. That’s made it immensely
popular, particularly with young people, and US
tech giants like Facebook and Snapchat see it as a
competitive threat. TikTok says it has 100 million US
users and hundreds of millions globally. It has its own
inluencer culture, allowing people to make a living
from posting videos on the service, and hosts ads
from major US companies.
ByteDance Ltd, a Chinese company, launched
TikTok in 2017, then bought
Musical.ly,a video
service popular with teens in the US and Europe, and
combined the two. A twin service, Douyin, is available
for Chinese users.
Q.
What concerns US oficials about the app?
A.
TikTok, like most other social networks, collects
data about its users and moderates what’s posted. It
grabs people’s locations andmessages they send one
another, for example, and tracks what people watch
in order to know what kinds of videos they like and
how best to target ads to them.
Similar behaviour has raised concerns about
American social networks, but Chinese ownership
adds an additional wrinkle, because the Chinese
government can demand that companies help it
gather intelligence. In the case of TikTok, this remains
a hypothetical threat, said researcher at Yale Law
School’s Paul Tsai China Center Samm Sacks — but
it could be happening.
TikTok has vowed that US user data is not stored
in China and that it would not hand over user data
to the government. But experts have said that if
the Chinese government wants information, it will
get it. The US government has also cracked down
on Chinese telecom companies Huawei and ZTE
because of this worry. The companies deny that they
facilitate spying.
There are also concerns about TikTok censoring
videos critical of China, which TikTok denies,
or pushing propaganda. Advocates in the US
also say the company is violating children’s
privacy laws.
Q.
Is the threat from TikTok unique?
TikTok saga continues with
Microsoft talks. Now what?
A man wearing a shirt promoting Tiktok at an Apple store in Beijing. PHOTO: AP
Tali Arbel
A.
No. China’s economic espionage is a well-
known threat, and similar user data concerns were
raised about Huawei, the telecom equipment maker.
The Chinese military or groups with ties to it are
accused of massive hacks of sensitive information
from credit bureau Equifax and the federal Ofice of
Personnel Management.
But several experts say that the US government is
lashing out at Chinese tech companies without taking
signiicant steps to protect Americans’ privacy with
federal legislation and while working to undermine
encryption, which allows secure communications
that can’t be easily read by outsiders.
“We’re trying to solve the issue of how youmanage
all the security risk that comes from massive data
collection in an unregulated space, and we’re trying
to solve it by playing whack-a-mole with different
Chinese companies that we see as threats,” Sacks
said. “We get into dangerous territory where the US
government is controlling what Americans can and
can’t do... This is technonationalism.”
Trump may also have reason to personally dislike
TikTok, which has started to join the US political
conversation. In June, young people carried out
a campaign on TikTok and other apps to troll the
president by artiicially boosting expected turnout for
a Trump rally in Oklahoma. Sarah Cooper, a comedian
who lip-syncs Trump’s statements in videos that make
him look ridiculous, is a TikTok star.
Q.
Would a purchase by Microsoft address the
administration’s concerns?
A.
“I think the security concern frankly has come
down to the parent company is Chinese and that’s
what US lawmakers have a problem with,” Sacks
said. If that’s the issue, a Microsoft deal would solve
the problem.
In remarks to reporters on Monday, Trump said
he supported such an arrangement. He said, “We’ll
close down (TikTok) on September 15 unless Microsoft
or somebody else is able to buy it.” He said such a
deal would require that the US government “gets
a lot of money” because it’s enabling the deal to
happen. But not everyone in the White House may
be in agreement; presidential trade advisor Peter
Navarro said on
Fox News
on Monday that the deal
was a problem because of Microsoft’s operations
in China.
Q.
So, Microsoft might buy TikTok? Really?
A.
Really. Other potential Big Tech buyers,
especially Facebook and Google, would likely face
antitrust concerns if they tried to buy TikTok.
Microsoft does already own the professional
and job-hunting site LinkedIn, and it is the number
four digital ad company in the US, after Google,
Facebook and Amazon. But TikTok would be a sharp
change in direction away from workplace services
for Microsoft.
Q.
What happens next?
A.
Microsoft is in talks with ByteDance and plans
to complete those by September 15. Any deal may
involve other American investors as well.
Microsoft’s plan would be to own and operate
TikTok in the US, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand.
That might complicate things if the service has
different owners in different parts of the world.