TikTok Ban Would Leave a Giant Social-Media Hole
The widely used short-video app, owned by Chinese company ByteDance, is under threat by the Trump administration. Here’s what’s at stake.
Outlawing TikTok would eliminate one of the fastest-growing social-media platforms in the U.S.
Photographer: Lionel Bonaventure/AFP via Getty Images
TikTok, the popular social-media app featuring do-it-yourself short videos, has also become one of the sore points in the growing frictions between the U.S. and China owing to its ownership by Beijing-based ByteDance Ltd. In recent weeks, White House officials from Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to President Donald Trump have even raised the possibility of banning or otherwise restricting TikTok, citing data-privacy and national security concerns the company denies.
Does a move to outlaw TikTok make sense? So far, the government hasn’t presented any clear evidence laying out its privacy concerns about the app. And unlike Huawei Technologies Co., another targeted Chinese company whose telecommunications equipment routes critical data traffic for wireless carriers and enterprises, TikTok is used mostly by everyday Americans to share dancing, lip-syncing and funny pet videos. The two firms are worlds apart. Still, with tensions rising by the day — including the U.S. move this week to shut down the Chinese consulate in Houston and China’s vow to retaliate — it’s hard to dismiss the threat entirely as political bluster. And so it’s worth giving a thought to what’s at stake in a potential ban of TikTok, and what the consequences of shutting down such a widely used app might be.