- [Makena] TikTok creators from all over the country flew
into Washington, D.C. this past March,
looking to influence a new type of audience, Congress.
- Contact your representatives,
and let them know how important this app is.
- [Makena] For more than three years,
the US government has been threatening to crack down
on TikTok, an app that has topped download charts
and become a powerful force driving American culture.
- Tonight, TikTok on the hot seat.
- As Washington debates whether
to ban TikTok over national security concerns.
- [Makena] While TikTok isn't too different
from Instagram or YouTube,
it's the app's parent company, Beijing-based--
- ByteDance.
- [Makena] That spooked lawmakers most.
Over the last few years,
ByteDance workers in China have reportedly accessed data
from American journalists, while at the same time,
US-China relations have strained,
and TikTok's popularity has made it the poster child
for anti-China policy.
But with millions of Americans using the app
for entertainment and also to support their businesses,
a nationwide ban could have devastating consequences,
so despite this mounting pressure,
some Republicans and Democrats are calling
on their colleagues to consider what a ban could mean
for free speech on the internet.
We're here in D.C. to see if Congress is really heading
in the direction of a total ban.
- Is the clock ticking on TikTok?
- This is your Status Update.
(minimalist electronic music)
TikTok's future in the US has been on shaky ground
for years.
So really, why is this process needed now with TikTok,
what was it
about TikTok? - One of the geniuses
of TikTok is every time you interact with that app,
it learns more about you.
It collects more data.
It knows what you like sometimes
before you know what you like.
- [Makena] Senator Mark Warner
chairs the Senate Intelligence Committee,
one of the few congressional panels
to regularly receive classified national security briefings.
- I'm very concerned.
The Communist Party in China can say,
"No, we want all that data about all those Americans."
Potentially spy upon people, potentially use it against you,
blackmail, you name the possible uses
that a Communist Party authoritarian regime could use
if they have that much data,
not just on Americans but people all around the world
that are using this app.
- [Makena] Earlier this year,
he introduced the RESTRICT Act,
a bill that would allow for the Secretary of Commerce
to ban TikTok and other foreign technologies
that the government deems a risk to US security.
- China in 2017 changed all their laws
and said any Chinese company,
their top obligation was not their customers,
not their shareholders, but the Communist Party,
so the Communist Party can ask for your data,
ask for any information from any Chinese company.
- [Makena] This isn't the first time the government
has tried to ban TikTok.
- We're looking at TikTok, we may be banning TikTok,
we may be doing some other things.
There're a couple of options.
- [Makena] Former President Donald Trump
signed an executive order in 2020 banning it
and other Chinese-affiliated technologies,
but several judges blocked the order,
saying Trump had overstepped his power.
In 2021, the Biden administration took a new tack,
and sought a compromise with TikTok to avoid a future ban.
- Well it turns out the clock won't stop for TikTok.
President Biden designed a new executive order
voiding the Trump-era decision.
- [Makena] Things looked promising,
until Chinese ByteDance employees were caught
using TikTok data to track the locations
of two American journalists critical of the company.
So in March, the Biden administration
reportedly gave TikTok an ultimatum: find an American owner,
or be banned.
And Warner introduced his RESTRICT Act,
which would give the government oversight on tech
from six adversarial countries, including Russia and China.
- So we said, "Let's have a bill
"that will give the Secretary of Commerce a series
"of new tools, powers," to say,
if there is a foreign technology
that creates a national security issue
from those six countries I mentioned,
the Secretary of Commerce could go from anything
from limiting that application
or requiring divestiture away from, say, a Chinese company,
all the way up to and including banning it.
- [Makena] More than two dozen senators have signed on
in support of the bill.
Even the White House is behind it,
arguing that it's the best legislative solution.
But it's not the only bill TikTok has to worry about.
Congressional Republicans have introduced similar measures,
leaving out the middleman, the Secretary of Commerce.
These bills direct President Biden to ban the app outright.
But for the first time,
some lawmakers have teamed up with TikTokers
to fight against a ban.
- TikTok as a platform has created a community
and a space for free speech.
It's also a place
where five million small businesses
are selling their products and services and making a living.
- [Makena] The day before TikTok's CEO Shou Zi Chew was set
to appear before the House Energy and Commerce Committee,
three Democrats joined nearly two dozen TikTok creators
outside of the US Capitol for a rally.
TikTok's most influential lobbyists
ended up being the creators themselves.
- TikTok's community has become an important part of my life
and has helped me connect with people
from all walks of life.
- TikTok has really been a game-changer for me.
It's allowed me to reach new audiences, millions of people.
- TikTok had flown the creators into D.C.
to show lawmakers how the app had impacted their lives.
I would love
to be on your livestream. - Yeah, come on,
be in my live.
No, you gotta be
in it though now. - Oh, love it,
yeah, yeah, yeah, sorry.
Oh my god, I'm so, I'm so-- - Okay, so we're
with The Verge.
What do I do?
They wanna know what I do. - Oh, sleepy hun. (laughs)
- I give you the news.
- I'm a mental health advocate, first and foremost.
I used TikTok as a tool
to democratize mental health education and resources.
- So I do a lot of comedy content,
but I do plus size and transgender activism as well.
- So I use superheroes and comic books
for social-emotional learning and mental health
for young people.
- So I wanted Congress to see that there are people
to TikTok, that this is the face of TikTok,
and that if you were to ban TikTok,
you would annihilate an entire community.
- [Makena] But to Representative Jamaal Bowman
from New York, and the handful of other lawmakers
who disapprove of a ban--
- Do not ban TikTok.
We need it.
Consider me an ally.
- [Makena] The government's attacks against the app amount
to xenophobic saber-rattling,
and a disregard for the the harms perpetrated
by American social media platforms.
- Let's have a broader,
more honest conversation about social media
and let's not scapegoat TikTok
because they happen to be owned by a Chinese organization
in this time of heightened xenophobia since COVID.
- [Makena] On March 23rd, all eyes were on TikTok's CEO,
Shou Zi Chew, as he testified before the House Energy
and Commerce Committee,
in an attempt to demystify the app's security practices.
- Our witness today is Mr. Shou Chew,
chief executive officer of TikTok.
You're recognized for five minutes.
- There are more than 150 million Americans
who love our platform,
and we know we have a responsibility to protect them,
which is why I'm making the following commitments to you,
and to all our users.
Number one, we will keep safety, particularly for teenagers,
as a top priority for us.
Number two, we will firewall protect the US data
from unwanted foreign access.
Number three, TikTok will remain a place
for free expression, and will not be manipulated
by any government, and fourth,
we will be transparent and we will give access
to third-party independent monitors
to remain accountable for our commitments.
- [Makena] Little new information came out of the hearing.
Lawmakers seemed entirely disinterested in Chew's answers,
often using their entire five minutes
to vent their frustrations rather than receive answers
to their questions.
- If the CCP demanded that ByteDance hand over all
of the data that they had on user,
on US users in their possession and ByteDance refused,
I wonder what would happen.
- You know, if there really are 150 million users in the US,
this suggests to me that the CCP has a finger
on the pulse of almost half our nation's population.
- TikTok is the spy in American's pockets.
- [Makena] At the end of the day's events,
it was clear lawmakers still didn't fully understand
how TikTok and platforms like it work.
- As I understand it, there's a sister app in China.
Douykin?
I'm sorry if I'm butchering the pronunciation.
Do they have these same things over there?
- Congressman, I'm really glad you asked this question.
Yeah. - And do they, yes or no?
- I am not sure,
because-- - Yeah, whoa, whoa, whoa,
come on now, you're not sure?
- [Shou Zi Chew] I really am not sure.
- [Makena] But most of them were more determined
than ever before to ban it.
- Mr. Chew, you are here
because the American people need the truth
about the threat TikTok poses to our national
and personal security.
It's been said it's like allowing the Soviet Union the power
to produce Saturday morning cartoons during the Cold War,
but much more powerful and much more dangerous.
Your platform should be banned.
- [David] Okay.
- [Makena] For more independent perspectives on all this,
we talked to two civil rights experts.
- I'm David Greene.
I'm the civil liberties director
at the Electronic Frontier Foundation.
- My name is Jenna Leventoff,
and I'm a senior policy counsel
at the American Civil Liberties Union.
- The concern
of the US government is that US user data might flow
to foreign governments,
then banning TikTok is really just a small,
is gonna do very little to address that problem,
because many, many, many online services,
including social media services
and other services collect hordes of US data,
and then make that data available to data brokers
who then sell it on open markets,
and among the people who buy it
on open markets are foreign governments,
including our adversaries.
- Most anyone can buy large amounts of American data
from brokers whose only real alliance
is with whoever offers them the most money.
That means foreign governments intent
on harming the US can already access our data.
But is there enough evidence showing
that TikTok is making this problem worse?
- Right, I wish the government would come out
and say that we've done a national security analysis
and we've reaching this conclusion
and here's the reason we've reached this conclusion
and here's the information we have,
and we can't tell you everything
but we're gonna tell you as much as we can.
I wish the government would do that, but we don't get that,
and as far as we know,
members of Congress have not received that.
- If what lawmakers fear most is data security,
a broader bill protecting user data could fix a lot
of the problems every tech company has, not just TikTok,
but critics have begun to speculate
that lawmakers are more concerned with China's rise
as a global superpower than the threats posed
by a popular app.
- I think that Congress has decided that they want
to look tough on China
and they have made TikTok the poster child for that.
Back in the '50s,
we saw people come down hard against communism.
It was politically popular to stifle speech
if it was related to someone who held communist values.
People today don't look favorably upon the McCarthy era,
and I think if we're looking into the future,
people aren't gonna look favorably upon this either.
- Under current law, what we have right now,
would it even be constitutional to ban an app like TikTok?
- No, absolutely not.
It would be a violation of the First Amendment.
- TikTok does pose a threat to users and the safety
and security of their data,
but so do all social media platforms.
The collection, dissemination,
and use of someone's sensitive information, their likes,
their dislikes, the time they spend watching a video,
can and have been used to harm individuals
and whole communities of people in the past.
But without meaningful evidence
that TikTok has inflicted more harm than Facebook
or Instagram, a ban could do more to chill free speech
on the internet than protect the safety of American users.
- We're not just talking about banning TikTok here,
we are talking about setting a precedent
for banning an entire app that people use
for protected speech from operating in this country,
and it enables it to happen again and again and again.
- Beyond the outraged lawmakers intent on banning the app,
Bowman and others have started building a coalition
to keep the app online, but even with this newfound support,
the next few months will be consequential
for TikTok's future.
If lawmakers are unable to pass a ban before the end
of the year,
their 2024 reelection campaigns may ruin any chance
of getting it done,
and it doesn't look like ByteDance is ready
to give up its ownership
to an American company any time soon.