Achi news desk-
Anyone with a Gen-Z person in their life is probably familiar with the popular social media app TikTok, but a new bill in the US may soon remove it from the American market.
With so much singing, dancing, and lip-sensing all in one app, TikTok seems fairly innocent, but the app has come under a lot of scrutiny recently, mainly raising a number of security concerns including their involvement with the Chinese government.
“The biggest concern is who is ultimately the owner and manager of a huge media platform where many people get their news. Having that end up under the control or influence of the Chinese Communist Party is a huge concern for the United States,” Beauceron Security CEO David Shipley said in an interview Thursday.
A bill signed by US President Joe Biden will require the Chinese owner of the company to sell to an American, or the app will no longer be able to operate in the huge US market.
Shipley added that the ban went further than just being a partisan issue.
“There is a very real threat. Remember, this is the same United States where we have never seen more partisanship, and across Republican to Democrat, everyone has supported this. That tells you this is important, and real,” added Shipley.
“What the Americans are laying bare here is that you cannot trust what is happening with TikTok, and how they are influencing the minds of our most important next generation.”
Shipley says one of the biggest concerns for the government is TikTok’s access to information, and how they can control what is seen.
“Remember that the core of these social media platforms are the algorithms that control what you get to see, when, and on what topics. And it is in the absolute interest of the Chinese state to have us at each other’s throats, to have us react to things,” he said.
“It’s no coincidence that social media is at its peak and we’re also seeing issues like anti-Semitism, issues like partisanship in politics, issues like a lack of faith that democracy even works.”
Another concern Shipley has raised is how difficult it is to regulate apps like TikTok.
“We must take a more sophisticated route to regulation. It was easy, really, in the days of radio and television because we regulated the airways and we saw the limited natural resource like the spectrum, we were able to apply very smart regulation of the ownership of the media, focus, values, ethical accountability, editorial accountability,” Shipley said.
As for whether Canada should also take steps to ban the app, Shipley said we have bigger issues on our plate.
“This is not a fight we need to stick our nose in, as they say, let the Americans lead it. But we should be paying attention to it,” Shipley said.
“The reality is, however, in terms of national security, apart from sticking our face in the middle of this, we can’t even put our house in order on much more important and fundamental things like the investigation into foreign interference, and the misuse of our nomination process. If we can’t take that seriously, we’re not ready to play this game at all,” he said.
