President Joe Biden’s campaign is embracing TikTok to court younger voters ahead of the presidential elections, but U.S. adults have mixed views about whether the video-sharing app should even operate in the country.
A new poll by The Associated Press and NORC Center for
Public Affairs Research finds a three-way split when it comes to banning the
app, with 31% of U.S. adults saying they would favor a nationwide ban on TikTok
use, while 35% say they would oppose that type of action. An additional 31% of
adults say they neither favor nor oppose a ban on the social media platform,
which is owned by Beijing-based ByteDance. Among those who use TikTok at least
daily, a national ban would likely be highly unpopular: 73% say they oppose it.
Talks of a TikTok ban reached a fever pitch in the U.S.
early last year after a series of Western lawmakers, governments and regulators
raised concerns that a set of Chinese laws could force the company to share
user data with the country’s authoritarian government. Specific evidence of
such an incident hasn’t been provided by the U.S. government or TikTok critics,
who also posit the platform could be used to spread propaganda beneficial to
the Chinese government’s interests or be used to bury or amplify certain
topics.
TikTok has vigorously defended itself, saying in part that
it has never shared data with the Chinese government and won’t do so if asked.
The company also has promised to wall off U.S. user data from its parent
company through a separate entity run independently from ByteDance and
monitored by outside observers. TikTok says new user data is currently being
stored on servers maintained by the software company Oracle.
The White House is expected to announce later this month new
efforts it will take aimed at protecting Americans’ sensitive personal data
from foreign adversaries, including China, according to a person familiar with
the administration’s planning. The person spoke on the condition of anonymity
to discuss the plan that has yet to be formally announced by the White House.
The Biden administration also reaffirmed this week there is
an ongoing review of the platform by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the
U.S., which last year reportedly threatened to widely ban the app if its
Chinese owners don’t divest their stakes.
Meanwhile, congressional efforts to enact a broader ban —
including bipartisan legislation that doesn’t mention TikTok by name but would
give the Commerce Department the power to review and potentially restrict its
use — was stalled last year amid opposition from industry and digital rights
groups, as well as some lawmakers, influencers and small businesses who use the
platform.
The AP-NORC poll shows TikTok users — about 170 million in
the U.S., most of whom skew younger — are less likely to be worried about the
app sharing American users’ data, reflecting a previously felt generational
divide. About a quarter of daily users say they are “extremely or very
concerned” about the idea of the Chinese government obtaining the personal
information of users, compared to about half of U.S. adults overall.
“For politicians, it’s like a hot potato,” said Dan Ives, a
tech analyst at the financial advisory firm Wedbush Securities. “Because in one
way (they) want to sound tough in front of the microphone. But then the reality
is, it could backfire.”
A majority of U.S. adults, 56%, said they would favor a more
limited TikTok ban on government devices, such as government employees’
computers and phones. Such bans have been implemented by at least 36 states,
the federal government and some other countries, as well as the European Union.
About a quarter of U.S. adults are neutral on blocking TikTok from government
devices, while 17% are opposed.
Most US adults favor a TikTok ban for government devices
A new AP-NORC poll finds about 3 in 10 support a general nationwide ban.
The Biden campaign has said it is using a separate cellphone
for TikTok to isolate the app from other communications and was taking
additional steps for protection. Some Republicans have criticized the decision.
Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Mark Warner, a Virginia Democrat, also told reporters on Monday that he remained concerned about the social media platform.
“We still need to find a way to follow India, which has
prohibited TikTok,” Warner said. “I’m a little worried about a mixed message.”
In response to a question about whether the campaign’s use
of the app neutralizes security concerns that have been raised, TikTok
spokesperson Alex Haurek said, “We’re hopeful policymakers — of both parties —
recognize the progress we’ve made in securing protected U.S. user data, an
effort that has put us well ahead of any peer company in this space.”
Last year, former Republican presidential candidate Vivek
Ramaswamy joined the app in an effort to reach younger voters, despite calling
it “digital fentanyl” that must be banned. Other Republican candidates found
other methods to get their messages on the platform, such as producing video
clips that could be shared between apps or working with conservative
influencers already present on the app.
The poll also found that about 6 in 10 U.S. adults — and 41%
of daily TikTok users — are “extremely or very concerned” about the amount of
time children and teenagers spend on TikTok. A majority of adults, 59%, say
they are concerned about the spread of misinformation on the app, while about
half are worried about people doing dangerous or illegal things they see others
doing on the platform, something that is felt less among TikTok users.
TikTok said last year it was implementing time limits for
minors. But those restrictions still allow teens to keep watching content after
they enter a passcode.
The company says it’s also bolstering its work to counter
misinformation by partnering with more global fact-checking organizations,
among other initiatives. This week, TikTok said it would set up fact-checking
hubs inside the app to help counter false information in the upcoming European
Union elections. -AP
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