With the threat of a full ban seemingly coming closer with each passing day, TikTok continues to work to assure advertisers that everything will be okay. At the same time, it’s also rallying support from high-profile users, in an attempt to sway influential opinions, hopefully staying full banning in the US.
The Goalie
According to a new report from The Information, TikTok has been holding meetings with top advertisers in recent weeks in an effort to allay concerns about a potential ban. According to The Information:
“TikTok has been taking steps to reassure the ad industry, including convening a closed-door meeting with advertisers in New York last month where executives, including data security manager Andy Bonillo, explained how they planned to resolve the government’s national security concerns.”
Sad to say that those meetings didn’t really do much for TikTok, according to attendees, but the fact that TikTok is now moving to the next stage of its disaster mitigation plan underlines the seriousness of the threat and the potential likelihood of an actual ban being put in place.
At the same time, TikTok has been rallying high-profile users, and calling on them to fly to DC to lobby Senators not to implement a ban. Brace yourselves for a wave of Washington landmarks in your ‘For You’ Feed this week. This marks the latest attempt of TikTok to save itself in the US.
TikTok, owned by Chinese company ByteDance, is beholden to China’s cybersecurity laws, which stipulate that all apps have to share user data with the Chinese Government upon request. There’s no hard proof that TikTok has been called to provide such, but the increasing tension with China puts TikTok in a bad position since there are concerns that this could be used as a means to gather information on influential American users, or political and media identities in the US and other regions. The most prominent case that perhaps led to current surveillance allegations on TikTok has to be the whole US journalist spying hullabaloo back in December.
The Wrap
The December incident highlights the type of spy activity that TikTok could facilitate, while it’s also possible that government employees, for example, could be used as leverage, with TikTok data able to provide location info, along with personal data on kids, home addresses, etc.
There are ways that this could be used for negative purposes, and as such, it makes sense for government officials to remove the app from official devices, particularly against the backdrop of dissenting opinions on military conflict. The next stage of these discussions will be critical, so CEO Shou Zi Chew should bring his A-game when he appears before the US House Energy and Commerce Committee.
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