Image Credits: Solen Feyissa via Unsplash
On Thursday, Sept. 25, President Trump signed an executive order supporting American ownership of TikTok, allowing the app to continue operating in the United States and without violating national security concerns brought up in the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act (PAFACA), which stated TikTok would be banned in the U.S. if not sold to an American company by Jan. 19, 2025. Chinese president Xi Jinping still needs to officially sign off on the deal, but according to President Trump he has agreed to move forward with it. This comes after multiple years of federal threats to ban TikTok dating back to President Trump’s first term, where he attempted to issue an executive order to ban the China-owned app for “national security purposes.” Due to this foreign ownership, U.S. lawmakers have expressed concerns for the safety of user data, including worries that Chinese officials could access this information and fears of its algorithm spreading misinformation.
While former President Joe Biden reversed this executive order, he also signed PAFACA in April 2024, giving ByteDance until January to divest. Originally refusing, TikTok voluntarily went dark and was removed from the app store in the United States on Jan. 19, despite President Biden not enforcing the ban during the last days of his presidency. This left implementation to President Trump, as stated by then-White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre. After President Trump stated he would not enforce penalties on TikTok for operating in the U.S., the app came back online 14 hours later. He has also extended the ban deadline four times during his first year back in office to give ByteDance time to facilitate a deal, while still remaining firm that TikTok must be sold to an American company.
As the deal approved by President Trump stands, an American group of investors would buy the app from ByteDance, owning more than 80% of TikTok, while ByteDance would own what remains, according to NBC News. According to BBC, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said that in the deal, American user data and privacy will be handled by American companies, and the U.S. will control the algorithm. Among these investors, multiple names were mentioned, one of which being Larry Ellison of the software company Oracle, which would host American data and review the algorithm’s code to ensure security, according to CBS News. This could prove to be an issue, as in Aug. 2022, Oracle was implicated for collecting and selling data without knowledge or consent from users, along with the use of tracking technologies to follow and collect user behavior, like frequented sites and email activity. This resulted in a class action lawsuit against Oracle, which described the company as a “data broker.”
Students were asked to provide their insight on the matter, with security and censorship being an issue brought up by multiple. One student who wished to remain anonymous stated, “I feel that this will cause the app to have much of the same problems seen with the Meta apps.” This is in reference to the American company Meta, owner of Facebook and Instagram, which has also dealt with privacy concerns around its collection of user data, according to Cubert Ellis. According to the Human Rights Campaign, Meta also changed content moderation policies and terminated diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs weeks before President Trump was inaugurated for a second term, which resulted in “a dismantled Hateful Conduct policy that expressly permits abuse against LGBTQ+ people while forbidding the same abuses against all other communities.”
In response to U.S. companies controlling TikTok’s algorithm, a student stated, “The U.S. government should not be able to sell companies to other companies, especially if they’re going to dip their grimy hands in it and censor it.” Another student, who mentioned concerns about Ellison being a potentially powerful Paramount shareholder and how that could affect coverage by Paramount-owned CBS wrote, “The United States is bought through monopolization by selling your data. As a country, are we going towards giving [the] rich more money, or helping the average and poor Americans/immigrants out of poverty, but get unbias[ed] news?”
One student took a more market-based approach to this situation, writing back, “I don’t support the oversight of user data, nor do I support banning TikTok in the U.S. I believe there are ethical implications to overseeing user data, primarily if the corporation hasn’t obtained express consent. I don’t think that it should be banned because that’s the beauty of a market. Those who want to ban it don’t have to use it, and those who don’t want it banned can. For the same reason, I believe TikTok decided to sell to American companies. The market gives a corporation the right to sell its products to American consumers. The people who don’t like that decision don’t have to use it, and the people who want that decision can. Furthermore, individuals who wish to ban it and dislike those decisions can either use an alternative app (e.g., Reels) or potentially create their own app to compete against it; however, it is essential to note that more antitrust action is needed in American society to allow for actual competition.”
Jack Snock is a fourth-year Political Science major with a minor in Journalism. AS993182@wcupa.edu.