Despite its CEO answering the call of the US Congress, TikTok is still pretty much in hot water. However, instead of simply wading through, TikTok decides to go on the offensive, publishing various accounts of how TikTok has actually helped US businesses, and, more broadly, the American economy. TikTok has also met with its key ad partners to provide them with explainers and notes to dispel concerns about its potential linkage to the Chinese government.
Dodge @ 100%
While all this would still likely fall on deaf US lawmakers’ and politicians’ ears, TikTok still has to try, right? Desperate times do call for desperate measures. Over the past week, TikTok has amplified a range of Stories about how it has helped regular Americans turn their hobbies into businesses through the app.
TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew has also posted two videos to the main TikTok channel, in which he calls on users for help in lobbying their local representatives to save the app. These measures show just how close a TikTok ban is likely is, with the platform doing all that it can to address concerns and sway opinions about the app.
It does seem counter-intuitive, no? If one of the key concerns about TikTok is that it can be essentially used as a gigantic CCTV device by the Chinese government to somehow influence people’s opinions, in an effort to shift public policy in other nations, then why further highlight the potential instead of trying to quell it? Is TikTok going with the reverse psychology approach?
Either way, TikTok is pulling out all the stops as it scrambles to save its business, or be forced into an expensive and difficult—borderline impossible sell-off process. According to Digiday, TikTok has also been meeting with key ad partners to present them with more information on the key concerns about the app. There’s even a 5-page Q&A document that addresses a range of queries about the app. The responses listed here are what you’ve likely read before – TikTok is under US and Singaporean management, TikTok does not censor content, yada-yada. The document addresses all the key queries, but the answers on at least some elements remain unconvincing, especially with regard to Chinese staff accessing American user info, which has occurred in the past.
Is that enough for TikTok to get banned? In some applications, it makes sense for TikTok to be restricted, particularly when it comes to government-owned devices, by people who may be susceptible to coercion via TikTok data for who knows what.
The Wrap
Amid rising global tensions, fueled by China’s inexplicable support of Russia and its real-life portrayal of pop culture’s ‘Red War Machine’, there are clear concerns about the exposure in this respect. At least in such a broader context, it makes sense for TikTok to be limited. Hey, at least TikTok’s ‘Project Texas’ is online.
This opens up a whole can of worms around how all social apps track user data, using it for their own purposes, but that’s a separate, more boring topic for another day. Regardless, the final decision lies in the hands of US officials, and anything less than an armed revolution by the millions of US TikTokers is going to prevent a total ban.
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