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How do you solve a problem like TikTok?

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How do you solve a problem like TikTok?

Some thoughts ahead of Thursday’s hearing with the platform’s CEO, including new stats from his prepared testimony

Katie Harbath
Mar 22, 2023
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How do you solve a problem like TikTok?

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Tomorrow, it is the TikTok CEO’s turn to be in the Congressional hot seat, where he’ll sit down with the House Energy and Commerce Committee at 10 am Eastern.

I’ve been following the debate about TikTok closely, not just in the United States but around the world. Every day, it seems like the question of what to do about the platform gets harder, not easier. Let’s look at all the different angles of the debate, the proposed solutions, and how, in some ways, they present impossible tradeoffs.

First, I want to talk about Shou Chew’s prepared testimony. What strikes me overall about TikTok’s approach to Washington - and other capitals around the globe - is how much it follows the Facebook playbook circa 2017-2021. 

  • The ads in all the DC political newsletters. 

  • The meetings with Congressional offices. 

  • Bringing in influencers to lobby on the company’s behalf. 

  • Touting how many users they have in the US (150 million) and how many are small businesses (nearly 5 million). He points out that the average user today is an adult well past college age and that users in the United States represent 10 percent of their global community, and their voice accounts for 25 percent of the total views worldwide. 

  • The long list of things they are building/doing to address concerns includes updating their community standards that include changes to how they handle synthetic media/AI-generated work, elections misinformation, and political ads not just by candidates but if those candidates pay influencers.  

  • Putting numbers to how many people it has working on trust and safety. TikTok is the only company to do this other than Facebook. In his remarks, Chew says that more than 40,000 people globally work exclusively on trust and safety issues for TikTok and that in 2021, TikTok spent approximately $1 billion on trust and safety. Trust and safety represents their largest labor expense for TikTok’s U.S. operations.

Moreover, Chew tries to address head-on the criticisms he’s heard. He says they fall primarily into four categories: 

  1. Minor safety

  2. Data privacy and security

  3. Real-world harms from online activities, and

  4. Risk of foreign content manipulation. 

To those, he makes four promises:

  1. We will keep safety—particularly for teenagers—a top priority for us;

  2. We will firewall-protected U.S. user data from unauthorized foreign access;

  3. TikTok will remain a platform for free expression and will not be manipulated by any government;

  4. We will be transparent and give access to third-party independent monitors, to remain accountable for our commitments.

It’s quite a lot of work to prove that they are taking responsible steps to address what Congress and many governments worldwide are concerned about. Unfortunately, it won’t matter one bit for this hearing.

TikTok is in the unenviable position of having to prove a negative. Chew can say and do all he wants, but very few will believe him. However, that doesn’t mean a ban is around the corner. Let’s look at those dynamics:

National Security: This is the main reason anyone wants to ban the app - the concern is not just about the data the Chinese government might have access to but also about their potential ability to push Chinese propaganda to American citizens. Ahead of the hearing, Chew did a video on TikTok that was promptly criticized by some folks like Will Hurd, who says the video proves the concerns about a foreign official with access to data being able to influence people in the U.S. All I could think when I saw Hurd’s tweet is how in the world do we decide which executives, politicians, etc. get to push messages to people in other countries. Are we saying no social media executive can publish on their platform? That doesn’t seem right. Anyways, another topic for another newsletter …

U.S. Politics: This is where things get complicated. Last year, Pew announced that more Americans are getting their news on TikTok. The White House courted TikTok influencers. The Biden campaign is reportedly planning a digital strategy to organize content sharing between supporters since political advertising isn’t allowed (I wonder how they’ll navigate the ban on paying influencers). Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said the quiet part out loud recently that a ban on TikTok could cause the Democrats to lose every voter under 35. The fact that Democrats want to use this app to campaign in 2024 is why I think the Biden administration will force them to sell before they are banned. Moreover, for all the GOP bluster, Punchbowl News recently reported that Speaker McCarthy and Rep. Scalise aren’t rushing to bring any TikTok bill to the floor.

  • Sidenote: The Wall Street Journal had a story yesterday about how TikTok trackers are embedded in U.S. state government websites. These are pixels that advertisers will put on their sites (nearly all the platforms have them) so that they can retarget people who visit their websites on those platforms. An interesting nuance to TikTok’s no political advertising rules is that it’s just for politicians and political parties. Says nothing about governments. I speak from experience when I say that it’s going to get really tricky for them to draw that line, and if they allow government ads, then they need to have an ad transparency center.

Geopolitics: One of the major initiatives TikTok touts is Project Texas - their effort to localize American data in the U.S. They’re doing the same in Europe. While I get the initial desire to do this, let’s play this out for a few steps. First, I’m no engineer, but I understand that separating out U.S. data is quite hard. How does it work when I engage with my friends overseas? If anyone has a good link/resource on this, let me know. Second, the larger platforms for years have cautioned about the risks of data localization and internet fragmentation. If TikTok succeeds, expect regulators to then turn to Meta, Google, Amazon, and others to tell them to do the same. This is going to lead to the need for more agreements between countries on data transfers, and these platforms becoming even more of a geo-political tool for countries. I could see more countries calling for platforms to be banned in addition to data needing to be localized. In some places, this could really put activists and others in harm's way. 

Markets: Advertisers go where the eyeballs are - and that’s increasingly becoming TikTok. TikTok has been trying to ally advertiser concerns given all the banning talk happening in DC, and creators are contemplating life after a possible ban. In 2019, the NFL signed a multi-year deal with TikTok, and ESPN also works with the company. So it’s not surprising that earlier this year, members of Congress called on ESPN to cancel that partnership. Last week, Senators Rubio and Ernst introduced a bill to deny federal funds to anyone that partners with TikTok. Policymakers are going to be in a tough spot to try to convince all these entities that a ban is going to be in their best interest. Moreover, if they do ban TikTok, where are most of these folks likely to go? Instagram and YouTube. That doesn’t help much with the anti-trust efforts these same members are pushing.

  • Sidenote: Do you know who else might benefit from a TikTok ban? Reddit. According to Standard Media Index, advertising on the platform went up 31 percent in 2022 - partially due to a similar younger audience as TikTok.

Oversight: At the end of the day, the reason that nothing Chew says will mollify Members is that they can’t independently verify what TikTok is saying. For instance, Chew talks a lot about their commitment to transparency, but as my friend Brandon Silverman points out, TikTok has a long way to go to achieve meaningful transparency. I hope that Members ask some questions of Chew about what they need to build trust with him, but I don’t think that’s really any of their goals, so I’m not holding my breath. That is the conversation we need to be having more of, though - what the right oversight on these companies looks like.

This is a lot. There are many layers to this onion, and the more you peel it back, the more complicated it gets. A ban might not be the solution as many have been writing about. Some say what we really need is a federal privacy law because the data the Chinese could get through TikTok they can also get through third-party data brokers. 

Moreover, TikTok is not the only app to be worried about. I only recently have seen people start to point out that CapCut - another Bytedance app - is an all-in-one video editor that has been downloaded more than TikTok in recent weeks.

Don’t expect tomorrow’s hearing to change the debate much on what to do about the problem that is TikTok, but do expect this debate to get more complicated.

What I’m Reading

  • Politico: Breton: Commission to go after Amazon, Spotify, Apple for violating the Digital Services Act

  • WSJ: Online Books Lawsuit Tests Limits of Libraries in Digital Age

  • New York Times: Man Behind Twitter Account That Spread Misinformation Goes on Trial

  • Wild West Newsletter: A Curious Distinction with No Basis - Why a Seattle judge poked a new hole in Section 230, and why Meta’s appealing.

  • Euractiv: German parties accused of breaching data protection rules

  • Euractiv: France to regulate social media influencers 

  • Tech Policy Press: Comparing Platform Research API Requirements

  • Centre on Regulation in Europe (CERRE): Access to data and algorithms for an effective DMA and DSA implementation

  • Cyberbullying Research Center: Teens’ View of Social Media: 2023

  • CA Assemblymember Buffy Wicks: Assemblymember Wicks Authors Bill to Make Big Tech Pay Usage Fees for News

  • Twitter/Sprinklr: Identify Toxic Content with Leading Analytical AI

    • Pushback about statistical errors in the post

Calendar

Topics to keep an eye on:

  • Facebook 2020 election research 

  • TV shows about Facebook - Doomsday Machine and second season of Super Pumped

  • March 23, 2023: TikTok CEO Congressional Hearing

  • March 23, 2023 - Dead line for companies to have to comply with Jordan subpoena

  • March 20 - 24, 2023: Mozilla Fest

  • March 29 - 30, 2023: Summit for Democracy

  • March 29, 2023 - Bipartisan Policy Center: Demystifying the Cambridge Analytica Scandal Five Years Later

  • March 29, 2023 - Axios: What’s Next Summit

  • YouTube CEO Neal Mohan is speaking 

  • March 2023 - Antigua and Barbuda Election

  • March 2023 - Federated States of Micronesia Election

  • March 2023 - Guinea Bissau Election

  • April 30, 2023 - Benin Election

  • April 30, 2023 - Paraguay Election

  • April 2023 - Andorra Election

  • April 2023 - Finland Election

  • April 2023 - Montenegro Election

  • May 7, 2023 - Thailand Election

  • May 10 - 12, 2023 - All Things in Moderation Conference

  • May 15-16: Copenhagen Democracy Summit

  • June 5-9: RightsCon

  • June 24 - June 30: Aspen Ideas Festival

  • June 24, 2023 - Sierra Leone Election

  • June 25, 2023 - Guatemala Election

  • June 25, 2023 -Turkey Election

  • TBD June: DFR Lab 360/OS

  • July 11-13, 2023 - TrustCon

  • July 2023 - Cambodia Election

  • July 2023 - Timor-Leste Election

  • July 2023 - Zimbabwe Election

  • August 6, 2023 - Greece Election

  • August 2023 - Eswatini Election

  • August 2023 - First GOP Presidential Primary Debate

  • September 27-29, 2023: Athens Democracy Forum

  • TBD September: Atlantic Festival

  • TBD September: Unfinished Live

  • September 2023 - Mauritania Election

  • September 28-29, 2023 - Trust & Safety Research Conference 

  • October 8 - 12: Internet Governance Forum - Japan

  • October 10, 2023 - Liberia Election

  • October 12, 2023 - Pakistan Election

  • October 14, 2023 - New Zealand Election

  • October 22, 2023 - Switzerland Election

  • October 2023 - Argentina Election

  • October 2023 - Luxembourg Election

  • October 2023 - Oman Election

  • November 12, 2023 - Poland Election

  • November 20, 2023 - Marshall Islands Election

  • November 29, 2023 - Ukraine Election

  • November 2023 - Bhutan Election

  • November 2023 - Gabon Election

  • November 2023 - Rwanda Election

  • December 10, 2023 - Spain Election

  • December 2023 - Bangladesh Election

  • December 2023 - Democratic Republic of the Congo Election

  • December 2023 - Togo Election

  • TBD - Belarus Election

  • TBD - Cuba Election

  • TBD - Equatorial Guinea Election

  • TBD - Guinea Election

  • TBD - Madagascar Election

  • TBD - Maldives Election

  • TBD - Myanmar Election

  • TBD - Singapore Election

  • TBD - South Sudan Election - (Unlikely to happen)

  • TBD - Turkmenistan Election

  • TBD - Tuvalu 

  • TBD - Haiti 

  • July 15-18, 2024 - Republican National Convention

Anchor Change is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

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