What does TikTok's possible ban on US-Kine competition mean

TikTok, owned by the Chinese company ByteDance, is facing a halt in the United States. What happens next will have major implications for global competition in the field of technology between China and the United States and can determine the upcoming president's reports, Donald Trump, with Beijing.

The video platform is China's first global app, and it's outdone it with rival performances, owned by the US, such as Instagram, Facebook or X.

The Chinese property issue was what put TikTok at the target of the American Congress, which in April 2024 passed a law concerning national security concerns, including the spread of disinformation and spying. The law has demanded by ByteDance to sell the app by January 19th, or, on the contrary, will face a halt.

While critics of the ban say similar data and privacy concerns exist also for US social media platforms, the issue of Chinese ownership adds a new dimension.

Cyber security firms have suggested that the app is capable of collecting users' data beyond what content they see in TikTok, and China passed a law in 2017 obliging Chinese citizens living abroad to cooperate with its intelligence device.

In 2023, a British journalist said her records and whereabouts were traced by TikTok employees in China and the United States. The US court documents of a former ByteDance employee also described how the Communist Party of China had access to company records to spy out pro-democracy protesters in Hong Kong in 2018.

All of this is happening amid increased tensions between Beijing and Washington, as well as growing concerns about spying and Chinese retaliation in the United States.

Trump has hinted he opposes the ban, since he had initially supported such a move. He said on January 17th that his decision on TikTok “will be made in the not too distant future”. He also found out that he had talked to Chinese leader Xi Jinping, and he had also discussed TikTok.

Trump's preliminary mandate as president from 2016 to 2020 was characterised with a harsh attitude towards China and with the target of Chinese companies in China and abroad, ranging from the 5G telecommunication infrastructure to surveillance camera firms. This harsh stance was in the context of the deepening technological competition between Beijing and Washington.

TikTok is the international version of Douyin of ByteDance, which serves markets in Hong Kong and China and maintains the strict device of Beijing censorship. As it is a successful business, its popularity and influence have given a global impetus to Beijing. ByteDance's unwillingness to change ownership shows the value it gives to the algorithm that created and that TikTok will continue to be a Chinese company.

How Trump will handle this stop could be an early signal how he will approach reports with China and the kind of dynamic he will have with Xi. / REL