On Tuesday, February 7, Jake Sullivan, the National Security Adviser of the United States, pass The White House backed a bill introduced by a group of twelve Democratic and Republican senators, called the RESTRICT Act (English acronym for Restricting Emerging Security Threats to Information and Communications Technology), that would give the US government the power to ban TikTok in all countries. across the country.
Protecting national security. in statement Taken on the same Tuesday, Sullivan emphasized that the measure would increase the ability of the US government to “prevent certain governments from using technology services operating in the United States in a way that could threaten Americans’ sensitive data and our national security.”
Dangerous process detection. Specifically, Sullivan stated that the restriction act would give the government new mechanisms to “mitigate” the risks to national security posed by the activity of “high risk” technology companies operating in the United States. One of these mechanisms is the ability to detect and address risks associated with the operations of individuals or countries “interested in sensitive technological sectors”.
Identify threats from “foreign adversaries”. This risk disclosure mission, if approved by the Act, will be carried out by the US Department of Commerce by identifying threats to the products and services of the information and communications technology sector in the United States. In this sense, Gina Raimondo, Secretary of the Department of Commerce, claimed In a statement released on Tuesday itself, the Restriction Act offered a tool to counter technological threats from “certain foreign adversaries.”
The usual suspects. According to Raimundo, this would help improve the protection of Americans and national security. In contrast, after introducing the bill, Mark Warner, the Democratic senator who chairs the Intelligence Committee, Certain The measure will not only apply to Chinese technology companies such as TikTok: it will also affect companies in the sector from Russia, North Korea, Iran, Venezuela and Cuba.
TikTok responds. For its part, TikTok confirmed it in a statement it cited Reuters That any ban on the app would be “a ban on exporting American culture and values destined for the billions of people who use our service around the world.” The company, which has nearly one hundred million users in the United States according to Statistathus showing his rejection of a bill that raises doubts about his privacy policy.
The CEO of TikTok will testify. In fact, these suspicions prompted Cathy McMorris Rodgers, chair of the US Energy and Commerce Committee, to announce At the end of last January, Xu Ziqiu, CEO of TikTok, will testify before the committee on March 23 to “testify about the privacy policy and data security of users, the impact of the platform on children, as well as their relationship” with the Chinese Communist Party“.
Facebook, Twitter, and now TikTok. Rodgers Certain notes that Big Tech has become “a destructive force in American society,” and in response, the commission has always been “at the forefront of calling on Big Tech CEOs — from Facebook to Twitter to Google — to represent the actions of their companies. These efforts will continue with TikTok,” also adding that the ByteDance-owned company allowed the Chinese Communist Party to access US user data.
TikTok is in the spotlight. Despite the fact that the US Energy and Commerce Commission put Shou Zi Chewen’s testimony on the impacts of big tech on society, the reality is that the US appears poised to eventually block TikTok’s activity on a national level. The issue of real concern for the White House is not the privacy right of North American users, but the influence China can exert in the US through TikTok.
The decisions of the United States and its allies Canada, the European Union, Norway and Taiwan to ban their officials from using TikTok are framed in this context. In short, it is another chapter in the rivalry between the United States and China.
Photo: Susie Brooks/Unsplash
