The House of Representatives voted 352-65 Wednesday for a bill that threatens to ban the social media platform TikTok. The Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act would ban TikTok from app stores unless its Chinese parent company ByteDance relinquishes ownership within six months.
The vote brought America a little closer to the Chinese-style online censorship that TikTok’s opponents decry. Whether they recognize it or not, TikTok opponents are using the same arguments that Chinese and Iranian censors can – and do – use to justify crackdowns on social media in their countries.
Chinese authorities have long maintained a “Great Firewall” on the Internet in the country, guided by the idea that the success of American technology companies is a threat to their “cyber sovereignty.” The Iranian government has also begun to embrace the idea of ”sovereignty of the Internet,” banning foreign social media networks in favor of Platforms controlled by Iran.
American lawmakers have begun to promote the same notions. On March 5th joint statementRepublican and Democratic members of the Chinese Communist Party’s House Select Committee said foreign control of a social media platform is a threat to U.S. sovereignty.
“America’s chief adversary has no right to control a dominant media platform in the United States,” said the committee’s chairman, Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-Wis.). Ranking Member Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-Ill.) added that the TikTok bill will protect Americans “from the digital surveillance and influence operations of regimes that may use their personal data as a weapon against them.”
Foreign censors might rightly make the same complaints about American social media. The US government has famously pressured tech companies to hand over user data openly AND secretly. Even the US military and intelligence services use advertising data to monitor potential targets.
It is true that TikTok’s content moderation is in line with the wishes of Chinese censorship. But then again, foreign critics can say the same about U.S.-based social media companies.
The Biden administration has used the specter of “disinformation” to push social media moderation in line with their policies. Meta censored Middle Eastern content that opposes US foreign policy, while Twitter does created gaps to allow the US military to manage its own propaganda accounts.
Of course, American law (unlike Chinese or Iranian law) limits the extent to which the government can censor social media. Last year, the courts banned and then not banned the Biden administration from pressuring social media moderators. But the final decision rests with Washington; it’s not as if European or Latin American voters have any say in the U.S. Supreme Court.
Competition is the most powerful force that keeps the Internet free. Whenever users find a banned topic on TikTok, they can flee to Twitter or Instagram to discuss the censored content. And when Twitter or Instagram impose politically motivated censorship on a different topic, users can continue the discussion on TikTok.
Forcing TikTok under American control is one way to block that escape route. Instead of protecting Americans from Chinese censorship, it would bring Chinese-style censorship home.