Lawmakers call TikTok a security threat. Will a crackdown cost them votes from users?
Paul and Luke Harwerth have been dancing on social media for more than a decade.
The two 30-year-old twins in Kansas City, who go by the handle TwinSauce, make video blogs about everything from trying whipped coffee to trips to Disney World. And they dance. Sharing short clips of choreographed dances to pop songs, showtunes and even NFL theme music, using YouTube shorts, Instagram Reels and, of course, TikTok.
“Tik Tok was the first place that really gave us legs, as far as movement and traction,” Paul Harwerth said. “It was the algorithm that really helped out. It was something that was kind of favoring new, up and coming creators.”
TikTok is one of the most popular social media apps in the world, with more than 1 billion users. It has helped spur the careers of influencers and musicians, like the Grammy-award winning Lil Nas X. But in Congress, a growing number of lawmakers are calling it something else — a security threat.
The twins now have more than 302,000 followers on the app, their largest follower count on any of the social media platforms. And if some members of Congress get their way, the twins could lose that following entirely.
In the past week, FBI Director Christopher Wray reiterated that he believes the app could be used by China to influence Americans. Sen. Josh Hawley, a Missouri Republican, has demanded that the Committee of Foreign Investment (CFIUS) in the United States examine allegations that China-based employees have access to U.S. data on the app. There’s even an effort to ban the app from the United States outright.
On Tuesday, a bipartisan group of 12 senators, including Sen. Jerry Moran of Kansas, sought a different approach than an outright ban targeting the app — they proposed handing that power to the Commerce Department. Under their bill, the Biden administration would be able to monitor, restrict and potentially ban foreign-owned information communications and technology businesses.
Congress has struggled to pass legislation regarding data privacy and security for years. But in framing their attempts to curb TikTok’s data collection as a national security issue — several of the lawmakers who are co-sponsoring the bill are on the intelligence committee — it has offered lawmakers the opportunity to appear tough on China.
Sen. Eric Schmitt, a Missouri Republican who has not yet signed onto any legislation regarding TikTok, has spoken of the app in stark terms. His spokesman called it a “Chinese weapon aimed directly at the United States.”
Because the company is associated with China, it could be easier politically for Congress to address the one app rather than looking at the larger issue of data security. American companies like Meta (which owns Facebook) and Alphabet (which owns YouTube), also collect and sell data. The company that owns the LGBTQ dating app Grindr sold data to a group that then tried to use it to expose Catholic priests on the app, according to the Washington Post.
Darrell West, the director of the Center for Technology Innovation at the Brookings Institution in Washington, said China would be able to buy the data they currently get from TikTok from other social media apps.
“It’s easier to ban TikTok than to pass a national privacy bill,” West said. “If they were really serious about consumer safety, we would have privacy legislation that dealt with all the threats.”
Moran, a Kansas Republican cosponsoring the bipartisan TikTok bill, said the bill may be a step in helping Congress start to take data privacy more seriously.
“This is a data privacy issue,” Moran said. “We have broader reasons than even national security for why we want data privacy. But maybe national security is the issue that will allow us to take that step.”
Attention does not always mean action in Congress. While the Biden administration put out a statement in support of the bill that would allow the Commerce Department to ban the app, it remains uncertain any of the bills aimed at TikTok will pass. Much of the frustration among lawmakers stems from the fact that it has taken more than two years for TikTok and CFIUS to come to an agreement on national security issues. CFIUS is a committee in the Treasury Department tasked with reviewing foreign investment in the U.S. for national security risks.
The company, meanwhile, continues to urge Congress to wait for the Biden administration to approve a deal.
“A U.S. ban on TikTok is a ban on the export of American culture and values to the billion-plus people who use our service worldwide,” said Brooke Oberwetter, a spokeswoman for TikTok. “The Biden Administration does not need additional authority from Congress to address national security concerns about TikTok: it can approve the deal negotiated with CFIUS over two years that it has spent the last six months reviewing.”
Hawley, who has proposed banning TikTok outright, said on Thursday he doesn’t think that there needs to be a bill giving the Biden administration more power on the issue.
“I’m glad that more and more senators are stepping forward and saying we need to do something on TikTok,” Hawley said. “I would prefer that we just ban it.”
Some lawmakers have expressed concern that banning the app outright would end up in court, similar to the way former President Donald Trump’s attempt to ban the app was challenged. And already, there are free speech groups who are arguing that banning the app would be a form of government censorship.
“This is how statecraft takes place in the digital era—the United States has a habit of framing its efforts as benevolent and in the national interest,” said Jennifer Grygiel, an associate professor at Syracuse University who researches social media. “But the world is bigger than individual nations. People everywhere should be concerned about sovereigns controlling public opinion through nationalistic mechanisms.”
Then, there’s the question of politics. TikTok is a popular app and any efforts to ban it would likely draw blowback from its more than 100 million users in the U.S. The company said it does not release the age range of its users.
Sen. Mark Warner, a Virginia Democrat who sponsored the bill that would allow the Biden administration to ban the app, said he believed the administration would have to declassify information in order to justify any ban of the app.
On Monday, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean Pierre said the political implications of opposing TikTok weren’t a factor in why it has taken the White House so long to approve a deal between CFIUS and TikTok.
“This is not about a political concern,” Jean Pierre said. “This is about making sure that we do the right thing for the American people.”
Back in Kansas City, the Harwerth twins said they wouldn’t mind if Washington stepped in to regulate data privacy, given the amount companies are able to learn. And they didn’t seem too concerned about whether Congress would ban TikTok, because they use multiple platforms for their accounts.
“I just think that if TikTok was to go down, there’s other things you can go to,” Luke Harwerth said. “Are they successful? No. Is the algorithm is good? No. Will people adapt? Yes.”
This story was originally published March 10, 2023 at 6:30 AM.
