[Copyright Statement] The copyright of this work is exclusively owned by 凤凰星, and Shenzhen Tencent Computer System Co., Ltd. is authorized to enjoy the exclusive right of information network dissemination. Any third party may not reprint without authorization.
Author Siqi Editor丨Rich Fei
After U.S. President Trump announced that it would ban the TikTok International version (hereinafter referred to as “TikTok”) from operating in the United States, this has achieved great success overseas. The successful Chinese short video product has been involved in the storm center of the Sino-US conflict.
According to the US "Capitol Hill" report, on July 31, local time, Trump stated on his special plane "Air Force One" that he would ban TikTok from operating in the United States and hinted that he would not support the acquisition of US companies. The reason is that TikTok provides US user data to the Chinese government, which will endanger the national security of the United States. Trump also emphasized that he may use emergency economic power or sign an executive order to enforce the action as soon as August 1, local time.
On the evening of August 2, the exact news came out. Microsoft issued a statement on its official blog stating that after the company's CEO Satya Nadella (Satya Nadella) had a dialogue with Trump, Microsoft is ready to continue to explore the acquisition of the overseas version of TikTok in the United States. Microsoft will move quickly to advance the discussion with TikTok's parent company Bytedance within a few weeks. In any case, the discussion must be completed no later than September 15, 2020.
Bytedance posted a statement on Toutiao’s official account late that night, “Bytedance has always been committed to becoming a global company. In this process, we are faced with various complex and unimaginable difficulties. Including the tense international political environment, the collisions and conflicts of different cultures, the plagiarism and smear of competitor Facebook. But we still adhere to the vision of globalization, and continue to increase investment in markets around the world, including China, to create for global users Value. We strictly abide by local laws and will actively use the rights granted to us by the law to safeguard the legal rights of the company.”
The Internet company that emphasizes embracing globalization is facing the biggest challenge in the tide of anti-globalization. .
How did TikTok become Trump's thorny eye?
TikTok is enthusiastic by young Americans, and has even become an indispensable existence and even a livelihood channel for many people in their lives. TikTok currently has 100 million users in the United States, with as many as 80 million daily active users, most of whom are teenagers in their mid-20s.
In 2019, TikTok in the United States ranked third in the world with 165 million downloads. After the outbreak this year, many people had to stay at home. As a form of entertainment, TikTok's downloads have increased rapidly. According to statistics from the data analysis company Sensor Tower, TikTok has been downloaded 315 million times in the United States in the first three months of 2020, and the number of downloads in a single quarter has exceeded any other application in history.
Currently the company has about 1,500 employees in the United States, but it has not yet achieved profitability in the US market. However, people familiar with the matter pointed out that TikTok may have $1 billion in revenue this year, and the profit will reach $6 billion next year.
The news that TikTok was about to be blocked immediately caused a heated discussion on Twitter, and many loyal American users could not accept it. Baby Ariel, a 19-year-old singer with 34.5 million followers on TikTok, said bluntly, "I hate Trump." Dance star Addison Rae has 53.4 million fans. She specially made a video to say goodbye to fans. In the video, she couldn’t help but choked up several times, “This is just an app. We are a family. You have changed my life. I became better, and it brought me a lot of happiness and comfort.”
Many American netizens complained more sadly, “I really cried, TikTok is my only source of happiness.” “Trump Banning Douyin is a lot harder than fighting the virus!""TikTok" can be renamed 'Trump Talk'(' Trump said ') to please Trump, avoid being banned." "You want to ban TikTok, thank you Trump, you happen to provoke millions of 18-year-olds on your own. They will vote in November."" Trump's solution to the pandemic is to ban TikTok..."
With the tightening of Sino-US relations again, TikTok, with a Chinese background, has long become a thorn in the US. As early as December last year, the US Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) advised all personnel of the Department of Defense not to use all social media platforms in China, and used TikTok as an example to claim that “there are potential risks in using TikTok”. At the Munich Security Conference in February this year, US Secretary of State Pompeo also called Chinese technology companies "Trojan horses" for intelligence agencies.
The Liangzi between Trump and TikTok is also related to an episode. On June 20, Trump held a large-scale campaign rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Before the meeting, more than 1 million people signed on the website hoping to enter, so his campaign team said with confidence There were at least 100,000 fans attending the meeting. Trump was worried about not having enough seats and planned to hold an outdoor speech for supporters.
However, things have changed dramatically. After the official start of the rally on that day, 1/3 of the 19,000-seat sports center was vacated. It turns out that 全都 is a prank by young Americans on TikTok, who collectively released Trump's pigeons after registering for tickets. Because of this, on July 15, the Trump campaign manager Brad Parscale was demoted to senior adviser, and Bill Stepien was promoted to the new position. Campaign manager.
In addition, Trump’s campaign App "Official Trump 2020" was given a low score of 1.2 in the Apple App Store. Most of the new one-star reviews came from TikTok users.
However, the US government’s stated concern is that Chinese-funded enterprises may pose a threat to US national security. At the end of June this year, the Indian government announced the ban on 59 Chinese applications including TikTok and WeChat on the grounds of national security. A few days later, Pompeo hinted that the United States also intends to block TikTok out of national security considerations.
As with previous concerns raised by Huawei and ZTE, the U.S. government believes that once TikTok collects user data and shares user information with the Chinese government, it will endanger U.S. national security. In addition, TikTok may also comment on video content that is not beneficial to China. proceed checking. TikTok has repeatedly denied the above two allegations, saying that it will neither censor content involving China nor hand over US user data to the Chinese government. The company emphasized that "TikTok America's user data is stored in the United States, and employee access is also strictly controlled."
But the above justification did not produce much effect. Many analysts believe that the US’s ban on TikTok is a sign of further Sino-US antagonism and one of a series of measures the US has recently taken against Chinese companies. TikTok is right at the center of the vortex of growing tensions between China and the US.
TikTok responded to doubts through “exchange”
美国 The government’s eye-catching behavior has long aroused TikTok’s detection, the latter 05588 The most has been trying to make a cut with China's parent company Bytedance for more than half a year.
As early as May of this year, TikTok appointed former Disney executive Kevin Mayer(Kevin Mayer) served as its chief executive officer and concurrently served as chief operating officer. It is reported that TikTok has been lobbying since 2019. Its lobbying company in the United States-"American Continental Group" President David Urban (David Urban) once helped Trump win the Democratic traditional advantage of Pennsylvania in 2016, and is currently Trump's re-election campaign adviser. In addition, TikTok also hires personnel from the US government to form an internal team. Currently in charge of public policy, TikTok vice president Michael Beckerman (Michael Beckerman) was the chief policy adviser to the chairman of the US House of Representatives Energy and Commerce Committee. After taking office in February this year, Beckman also recruited a number of lobbyists close to Congress, including former senior advisers to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
TikTok's recent lobbying document submitted to the U.S. Congress shows that from April to June this year, TikTok spent as much as $500,000 in lobbying funds, much higher than the first quarter's record of $300,000. In addition to its main office in Los Angeles, TikTok also has offices in London, Paris, Berlin, Dubai, Mumbai, Singapore, Jakarta, Seoul and Tokyo.
On July 6 this year, TikTok said it would withdraw from Hong Kong. Reuters quoted a TikTok spokesperson as saying, “Considering recent events, we have decided to stop operating the TikTok app in Hong Kong.”
has been working with TikTok after expressing its “hostility” towards TikTok in the United States. Microsoft and other companies are in acquisition negotiations. On August 1, Reuters quoted two people familiar with the matter as saying that before Trump’s statement, Microsoft and several other companies had been negotiating the acquisition of TikTok. ByteDance previously tried to retain a minority stake in TikTok's US business, but was rejected by the White House. In the newly proposed transaction, ByteDance will completely withdraw from TikTok’s US business and be taken over by Microsoft, responsible for the preservation and management of all US user data. It also allows another US company besides Microsoft to take over TikTok’s US business, and certain headquarters are located in American ByteDance investors may have the opportunity to acquire a minority stake. The news has not yet received a response from Microsoft and Bytedance.
Trump stated on July 31 that he rejected the idea of selling TikTok's US business to Microsoft. Reuters pointed out that it is not yet clear what changed Trump's thinking. In the past two days, several prominent Republican lawmakers issued statements urging Trump to support the sale of TikTok's US business to Microsoft. "Financial Times" quoted some executives of ByteDance as saying that Trump's tough remarks may only be a means of negotiating a more favorable deal for Microsoft. Trump’s previous attitude also prompted TikTok to make greater concessions, including agreeing to add 10,000 jobs in the United States in the next three years and using a $1 billion fund to support American users who make a living on TikTok.
Multi-country follow suit to "encircle and suppress" TikTok
Before the United States, TikTok has encountered a series of crises overseas. The first to block TikTok was India. Since the Sino-Indian border conflict in June this year triggered a domestic boycott of Chinese goods, most Chinese APP applications including Tiktok were also boycotted. Subsequently, on June 29, the Indian government banned 59 Chinese mobile phone applications, including TikTok, on the grounds of “damaging Indian national security”.
After the ban, users can no longer search for TikTok in Google and Apple’s Indian app stores, and users who have already downloaded cannot display any videos when they open the App. You know, India used to be TikTok's largest overseas market, and ByteDance lost more than $6 billion in India.
Since then, TikTok's attempts to locate the R&D headquarters in London have also been terminated. In the context of TikTok's attempt to separate from the parent company Bytedance, one of the attempts was to plan the company's headquarters in London, England. After Huawei was banned from participating in the construction of the UK’s 5G network, the “Sunday TimesThe Shibao disclosed on July 19 that the negotiations for the establishment of TikTok's global headquarters in London for several months ended.
To make matters worse, Australia and Japan also intend to follow suit. On July 17, Australian Prime Minister Morrison stated that it is possible to conduct security investigations on Chinese social software including TikTok and WeChat. Once problems are found, they will take immediate action. According to a report from Japan’s NHK, Japan’s ruling party sent a coalition of Liberal Democratic Party members to a meeting in the Diet on July 28 to discuss restrictions on TikTok and other Chinese apps, with the purpose of protecting "Japanese users’ personal information from being leaked."
In addition, the Pakistani government also issued a warning due to the "indecent" videos circulated on TikTok. According to a news from the Economic and Commercial Division of the Chinese Consulate General in Karachi on July 30, the Pakistan Telecommunications Bureau recently issued a warning to TikTok, requesting it to rectify the suspected "immoral, obscene and vulgar" content on the platform.
In the past six months, 44 Chinese companies have entered the US sanctions list
The move to ban TikTok comes at a time when tensions between China and the United States are escalating. On July 21, local time, the United States suddenly closed the Chinese Consulate in Houston on the grounds of protecting American intellectual property rights and the private information of its citizens. This forced the Chinese to take countermeasures and closed the US Consulate in Chengdu.
On the same day, the Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) of the US Department of Commerce announced that 11 Chinese companies were included in the "Entity List." This is the 11th that 33 Chinese companies and institutions including Qihoo 360, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin Engineering University, NetEase Koala, and Yuncong Technology were included in the “Entity List” by BIS on May 22 this year. Companies.
Not all companies sanctioned this time are technology companies. They involve textiles, rail transit equipment, electronic equipment, and even accessories. These 11 companies are acquiring American-origin products (including products and technologies). The aspect will face new restrictions. This means that 44 Chinese companies have encountered sanctions in just six months.
In the context of severe Sino-US relations, Trump’s intentions have also been criticized by some IT practitioners and researchers. Facebook Former Chief Security Officer Alex Stamos (Alex Stamos) questioned whether the ban on TikTok is really out of concerns about national security. “It’s getting weird. , sold 100% to a US company to relieve any reasonable for data protection ’s concerns. If the White House directly banned it, we know that it has nothing to do with national security."
American Civil Liberties Union surveillance and cybersecurity consultant Jennifer Granick also pointed out, "The prohibition of a millions of American The application that people use to communicate with each other is a danger to freedom of speech and is technically unrealistic. Closing a platform, even if it is legally possible to do so, will damage the freedom of speech on the Internet, and will not help solve it. The issue of unreasonable government supervision. "
, a "new American think tank" that studies public policy, China issues and cyber security expert Sam Sacks (Samm Sacks) pointed out that "The United States is at a turning point. How to Keeping open while using technology to protect yourself? You know, openness has always been one of the biggest advantages of the United States."
On August 1, Vanessa Pappas, general manager of TikTok America, was on the social networking site The video released said, "We will not leave" because millions of Americans use TikTok every day, and she also expressed gratitude to the Americans for their support.
Regarding the next possible sanctions against TikTok by Trump, the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) analyzed that the most direct and obvious way is to get Google and Apple to remove them from the software store. Use a similar approach to Huawei to list TikTok’s parent company BytedanceIncluded in the "Entity List" of the US Department of Commerce, prohibits US companies from doing business with it; in addition, it can also order network service companies to ban Douyin servers. India used this method when banning Douyin and other Chinese software, causing users Connecting to a VPN is also unavailable; there are also partial bans, such as prohibiting US government personnel from installing Douyin. At present, the US House of Representatives has passed relevant proposals, but the Senate is still evaluating them.
What is not optimistic is that even if TikTok changes hands, it will not be able to eliminate the US's concerns about China's hawks. Republican Senator Marco Rubio, who has always been harsh on China, said TikTok still needs to answer questions about where the data is stored and how to protect it. He accused TikTok of failing to provide sufficient information to explain how its algorithm controls content. "Before giving a clear explanation, I am still concerned about the company's activities and its relationship with China."
