This week, Congress and President Joe Biden took the next step to prevent the Chinese Communist Party from using Americans’ data against us. You may have heard of this legislation referred to as the “TikTok ban.” But rest assured, we’re not out to stop the sharing of short-form videos.
My colleagues and I enjoy TikTok’s kaleidoscope of creativity as much as the next person. Many members of Congress use the platform, as does President Biden’s campaign. The problem is that TikTok, one of the country’s major media platforms, is owned by a company that is deeply connected to and ultimately responsible to the CCP. This legislation gives that company up to a year to sell the platform before it risks facing restrictions on access to app stores and web hosting services. We are drawing a hard line against foreign adversaries using social media platforms to control our data and then, through the power of opaque and proprietary algorithms, turning that data against us and shaping what reaches millions of Americans.
ByteDance has already proven its willingness to monitor and manipulate American users’ data to the advantage of the CCP.
While other social media platforms have a similar reach, TikTok has a unique vulnerability: its parent company, ByteDance. TikTok executives insist that, in the words of CEO Shou Zi Chew, ByteDance “is not owned or controlled by the Chinese government.” But Beijing has a history of punishing or even disappearing executives who don’t comply with the party line — something undoubtedly on the mind of ByteDance’s China-based leadership. In a legal filing last year, for example, ByteDance’s former head of engineering in the U.S. said that some members of the ruling Communist Party used data held by ByteDance to locate protesters in Hong Kong. No wonder, then, that, according to Politico, the Chinese embassy has lobbied congressional staff against this legislation.
In just the past four years, the share of U.S. adults who get their news regularly from TikTok has quadrupled to 14%, including roughly one-third of Americans under 30. Once we recognize that TikTok’s algorithm is also determining the news we see, then the parallels to other points in American history and technological advancement become more clear. As the Chair of the Federal Communications Commission Jessica Rosenwercel stated, “For decades we’ve had policies in the Communications Act that would prevent, for instance, a Chinese national or a Chinese company from owning our nation’s broadcast television stations. We would say that’s unacceptable, right? I’d be kicked out of my job if I decided otherwise. And yet here we have something that’s arguably one the newer forms of media and there is zero oversight.”
ByteDance has already proven its willingness to monitor and manipulate American users’ data to the advantage of the CCP. When journalists reported on ByteDance’s use of consumer data, the company responded by using TikTok to track American journalists’ IP addresses, movements and discussions with sources. Leaked audio from internal meetings showed that user data supposedly quarantined in the U.S. was proven to be accessed repeatedly in China. TikTok has suggested a “Project Texas” proposal of internal content moderation to mitigate these threats, but corporate self-control has yet to be the answer for any social challenges. When the House was debating legislation to make sure that TikTok, like traditional broadcast media, be subject to U.S. jurisdiction, the company decided to activate its users by sending deceptive push alerts to lobby members of Congress, proving that when the Chinese Communist Party’s assets are threatened, it will not hesitate to weaponize Americans’ data. We live in an era in which internet users’ data is for sale in a variety of shady schemes, but at least those companies are ultimately subject to the purview of the U.S. government and Congress. We know Congress must act in implementing comprehensive data privacy laws, which is why this bill was passed alongside laws to prohibit data brokers from selling data to our foreign adversaries. But as long as TikTok is controlled by ByteDance, they are ultimately not responsible to U.S. laws but to the Chinese Communist Party’s interest in conducting espionage. Congress and the president are presenting TikTok and ByteDance with a choice: Preserve access to 170 million consumers in the U.S. by selling to a company that is not beholden to the CCP. Buyers are already lining up. This elegant solution addresses pressing national security concerns, yet ensures that TikTok, content creators and users, all can not only survive, but thrive.
Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi
Raja Krishnamoorthi represents Illinois' 8th congressional district in the House of Representatives. 
