Sameera Casmod | sameerac@radioislam.co.za
20 December 2024 | 11:00 CAT
3-minute read

Image: Reuters

The US government is pushing to ban TikTok unless its Chinese parent company, ByteDance, divests ownership, citing national security concerns over data privacy and content manipulation.

TikTok has filed an emergency request with the Supreme Court to delay the ban, arguing it violates First Amendment rights and could cause irreparable harm to its US operations. The law reflects broader bipartisan concerns about China’s influence on American technology and security.

This case follows similar US actions, such as restricting Google services on Huawei phones and limiting microchip exports to China. Critics suggest these moves may be part of a geopolitical strategy to curb China’s growing power as a global tech leader.

Nadine Strossen, Senior Fellow at the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression and civil liberties activist discussed the looming ban on Radio Islam International and described it as a free speech issue with implications that extend beyond the US to the rest of the world, given TikTok’s global reach.

The US has said that TikTok poses a threat to national security and data privacy and passed a law in April that intends to force ByteDance to divest the app by 19 January. TikTok, which has 170 million monthly US users, argues that the law is a strategy to inhibit free speech and suppress a media platform crucial for individual liberty and democracy, However, on 6 December, the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit in Washington rejected TikTok’s arguments that the law violates free speech protections under the US Constitution’s First Amendment.

Strossen argues that while the Justice Department’s concerns about national security and data privacy are of the utmost importance, “the evidence is that this law is not an effective way to promote these concerns, and that there are many far less speech-restrictive alternatives,” and emphasised that frees speech rights do not differentiate between foreign and domestic ownership.

Critics suggest that the scrutiny of TikTok has less to do with tangible risks and is seen as more of another flashpoint in the United States’ broader geopolitical tension with China. Strossen pointed to other tech giants like Meta, Google and X, which face little to no regulation despite similar privacy concerns.

“Why is the government concerned about that only with respect to TikTok, when we’ve got X and Facebook and Meta and Google all sucking up that data without any protection? So there seems to be a concern that there is a selective targeting of this particular platform, TikTok, for reasons other than the asserted national security and privacy reasons,” Strossen says.

The broader implications are troubling. If TikTok’s operations are shut down in the US, its millions of users – including small businesses relying on the platform for outreach – stand to suffer. Furthermore, Strossen warned, the erosion of free speech protections could cascade to other platforms and embolden authoritarian governments to suppress dissent under the guise of national security.

In countries where freedom of expression is already under siege, social media often serves as the sole avenue of dissent and mobilisation. If the US, the supposed bastion of free speech, makes an exception here, other nations could exploit this precedent to stifle liberties, Strossen says.

As the Trump administration prepares to take the reins, the future of TikTok hangs in the balance. While there has been a lack of transparency and the absence of congressional hearings or evidence-based deliberation on the issue, Strossen expressed cautious optimism that Congress might still hold hearings to gather concrete evidence instead of relying, as they have done, on speculative national security threats.

“Donald Trump is famously mercurial,” Strossen says, referencing past instances where he changed his stance on TikTok. There is wide-spread speculation that Trump might choose not to enforce the ban even if upheld.

Listen to the full interview on Sabaahul Muslim with Moulana Junaid Kharsany.