• Nando Castellin

  Teacher Technology

TikTok has never had such a risk in the US before. The Biden administration is threatening to ban TikTok if it is not sold by its Chinese owner. Today TikTok gets a chance to defend itself: CEO Shou Chew appears before the US Congress.

The situation is very reminiscent of three years ago, when former President Trump wanted to sell the Chinese tech company TikTok. Then a forced sale failed. Now it seems the US government Well made.

Save joins a long line of tech CEOs who have been asked for hours on America’s political stage in recent years. The investigations that Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg endured after a massive data scandal in 2018 became famous. For Chew, however, it would be different: a ban on Facebook was out of the question at the time.

In the case of TikTok, even more is at play. The agency is part of the geopolitical power struggle between the United States and China that has been going on for years. Telecom giant Huawei and chip machine maker ASML also have to deal with it.

The 40-year-old TikTok CEO is unknown to many. Since 2021 he has been out of work for a long time. The Singaporean was educated at Harvard and served in the Singaporean Army, among others. He warned this week In a TikTok video US users, now 150 million monthly, may want US politicians to ban the app.

Those users are Chew’s biggest asset. Would President Biden really dare to ban an app so popular with young voters? This is a target group that is crucial to his re-election next year.

Chev’s job today is to prevent a nationwide ban from approaching. And he’s doing this when Tik Tok is in the biggest political storm of its existence, because America isn’t the only one that trusts Tik Tok. All sorts of countries have followed suit, with the Netherlands just last Tuesday announcing restrictions. These mostly apply to government (areas) employees. India and Afghanistan are the only countries with a nationwide ban.

See an overview of countries that have imposed restrictions here:

In America, Democrats and Republicans disagree on many things, but TikTok is an exception. For example, there is a bill from senators from both camps that could count on support from the White House. That plan isn’t specifically aimed at TikTok, but could be used to ban it. Still not that far. proposal It is now prominent As a means of influencing the ongoing negotiations between the government and TikTok.

American politicians are more concerned about TikTok, for example because children spend too much time on it and may engage in dangerous activities. Challenges. And of course the fear of US users’ data ending up in Chinese hands. There is no concrete evidence for this and Tik Tok continues to dispute these allegations. But the question is whether TikTok’s response will be enough to dispel the massive pessimism.

Called the main program of the app to try it anyway Project Texas Also has a European variant: Project Clover. CEO Chew will consider this in detail, According to his pre-released opening statement. A subsidiary has been launched with an agreement with American technology giant Oracle. All traffic from US users goes through their servers. They are responsible for the algorithm and have access to the app’s source code.

Oversight also includes distributing the Oracle app to iOS and Android download stores, although employees in China still provide programming code. The Washington Post writes.

The plan was supposed to be TikTok’s salvation, but the US government thinks it’s not good enough. A potential ban on the table now should force the company to take even more drastic action: a sale. Whether it will succeed is questionable. According to TikTok’s CEO, this is not a solution. China should also allow sales. It is estimated that the country is not ready for this.