The attacks that various Western countries have launched in recent weeks against the American-run audiovisual platform TikTok, which is advancing with a law to completely oppose its use, demonstrate the “abusive data collection practices” that exist on the Internet. Internet, but also expose a geopolitical dispute since it is a Chinese application when in reality it is “a widespread problem” without “regarding the origin of the application”, agreed the analysts consulted by Télam.

The first step was taken by former President Donald Trump in August 2020, when he issued an executive order prohibiting the dealings of the Chinese capital firm ByteDance, owner of the application, with any local person or company, on the grounds that the company could be used to collect personal data from US users and that this data could be shared with Beijing.

The measure was stopped that same year by a court order, but Washington wanted to force ByteDance to sell its operations in the country to local companies, which was close to fruition until it was finally canceled in January 2021, after the arrival of Joe Biden. to the White House.

But since then, several key government agencies, such as the Department of Defense, Homeland Security and State, they banned the use of the app on official devicesa measure which was extended this year to all federal agencies and which has been replicated in recent weeks by the United Kingdom, Canada, New Zealand, the European Commission and recently France.

Now, through a bill that is advancing in the House of Representatives, the US Congress intends to extend it to a total ban on the use of the short video platform, one of the most chosen by users, along with Netflix.

geopolitical dispute

Analysts see the Washington-led battle as a geopolitical dispute rather than a genuine concern for data collection from the more than 150 million US users, given the fact that TikTok collects the same information as other platforms such as Facebook, Instagram or Google; the only difference is that these companies are locally owned.

For media and cultural industries expert Martín Becerra, this is a “very clear” message about the need to protect state data handled by officials, but it is not a “real ” concern.

“If there was this concern, then they should not only prevent the use of TikTok, but all platforms, services and applications in the world – starting with the United States – which extract data without users’ consent. services and applications that they use on their mobile devices,” Becerra said in a dialogue with Télam.

“If there was this concern, then they should not only prevent the use of TikTok, but all platforms, services and applications around the world – starting with the United States – that extract data without users’ consent. services”Martin Becerra

“Here, there is another staging to place, in this case in a Chinese application, the responsibility for a problem which is becoming widespread on the Internet”, analyzes the professor and researcher from Conicet.

At the center of the arguments against ByteDance is China’s 2017 National Intelligence Law, which states that all Chinese organizations and citizens must “support, assist and cooperate” with intelligence efforts.

However, a report made at the Georgia Institute of Technology last January and picked up by the BBC news channel points out that this sentence is taken out of context and points out that the law also includes warnings that protect the rights of users and companies.

“The concern of Western governments has to do with this fear that they are expressing that China could possibly access information collected by TikTok, basically because it is a Chinese company. But it is fair to point out that this data on abusive collection practices is present on all platforms, regardless of the origin of the application or the company”, explained to this agency the lawyer and expert in policies impacting the freedom of expression Eduardo Ferreyra, project manager of the Association for Civil Rights (ADC).

“These abusive data collection practices are present on all platforms, regardless of the origin of the application or the company”Edouard Ferreyra

El gobierno chino aseguró esta semana que “nunca ha pedido ni pedirá” a empresas o individuos que recaben información o se la proporcionen y subrayó que el Gobierno le da mucha importance a la “protection de la seguridad y la privacidad de los datos con arreglo a the law”.

On Thursday, TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew claimed that “ByteDance is not an agent of China or any other country” during harsh questioning by a US congressional committee made up of Republicans and Democrats.

“We believe what is needed are clear and transparent rules that apply broadly to all tech companies – ownership is not central to solving these problems”added the executive, who is promoting a plan known as Project Texas, whereby the processing of user data in US territory would be limited to a US-led division.

Thus, Washington would no longer have to worry about extending the ban on the use of TikTok to all citizens, which would be an extreme measure and an unprecedented act against a media company in the United States.

“A ban would be quite problematic from a constitutional point of view, since it would involve a serious impact on the freedom of expression, freedom of information and communication of people”, underlined the lawyer of the ADC, an NGO which works for the defense of civil rights. , adding that such “sensitive and intrusive” measures require justification in a democratic society like that of the United States, especially since many Western media outlets use TikTok to distribute content.

disproportionate measure

Additionally, the veto would involve an escalation with Beijing over the dispute over technological, economic and political leadership that the two powers maintain and which not only involves TikTok, but also the US lobby for different countries to ban Chinese technology providers such as Huawei or. Zeta TV in their communication networks.

“There is, in this attempt to ban TikTok, a line of continuity with this policy that we are already observing,” Becerra warned, noting that so far there are only “suspicions” and that banning the platform would be a disproportionate measure “because it negates due process”.

Becerra also warned that if banned, it would set a very dangerous precedent: banning the use of apps based on mere suspicion “would lead to indiscriminate censorship and very clear limitations on free speech and commerce. in the world”.

“Because what the US government does with the internet, in general, tends to be replicated in many other countries,” he warned.

For analyst Victoria Murillo, professor of political science and international affairs at Columbia University, the The ‘New Cold War’ looming between the US and China focuses on TikTok because the app ‘affects one in three Americans and because of its visibility’.

However, this is not the only aspect in which these tensions manifest themselves, he told Télam Murillo.

“There are limits on semiconductor trade and other measures that reflect growing tensions. As those tensions have become more visible under Trump, Democrats under Biden have pursued them and now it’s Republican and Democratic states which impose limits on the use of TikTok in the public sector, and in both parties there is a growing appetite for this new type of cold war, ”added the Argentinian analyst.

Becerra agrees that there is a re-editing of the narratives prevalent in the Cold War, where the illusion is created that “on the one hand they are all good and on the other all bad”, a narrative that “can succeed in the in the sense that it can have followers and even achieve consensus, (but) at bottom it is a great speech with feet of clay”.