TIKTOK TEMPEST
Reactions to security fears after US crackdown on app reflect relations with China.
Views differ across Asia
For Saitama Prefecture, TikTok seemed a game-changer that could finally put it on the map. Best known as a bedroom community for Tokyo commuters, it has long struggled to grab a piece of the spotlight from its giant neighbour.
To improve its image with young people, local officials opened a TikTok account and had famous people who were born in the prefecture sing its praises. The PR push was a success, with many people checking out some 20 videos from Saitama-loving celebs.
The ties between Saitama and the Chinese short video-sharing service grew stronger after that. In June, the prefecture signed a partnership agreement with the Japanese unit of ByteDance, TikTok’s parent, hoping to draw even more attention to the community.
But that was before the United States began alleging that TikTok posed a security threat. Many Saitama citizens started worrying that their personal data might wind up in the hands of the Chinese government. By late July, all of the prefecture’s promotional videos were deleted.
“We cannot proceed if our citizens are concerned,” said a Saitama official, adding that the prefecture was not aware of any actual security risks from the app.
Saitama citizens are not alone. Osaka and Kanagawa prefectures, and the city of Kobe, have also stopped using the app or deleted video, after citizens demanded action. Lawmakers from the ruling Liberal Democratic Party voiced concerns about Chinese apps and software, and agreed to ask the government to limit their use.
Elsewhere in Asia, opinions are split over China’s first globally successful social media platform. While each country’s reaction is influenced by its ties to Washington and Beijing, the mild response in most countries owes partly to TikTok’s success in differentiating its overseas operations from those in China.
Still, rising US-China tensions show the limits of this approach while also highlighting TikTok’s potential to put China in a favourable light.
“Asian nations’ reaction to TikTok is a reflection of their political attitudes toward China,” said Michiaki Tanaka, a professor at Tokyo’s Rikkyo University Graduate School of Business.
India’s government, for example, blocked TikTok and other Chinese apps in June as a border dispute between China and India flared up. Japan, meanwhile, as a close ally of the US, typically follows its lead on China issues and appears to be doing so over TikTok.
While India and Japan are taking a wary approach to Chinese apps and technology, other Asian countries are more relaxed, or are paying little attention to the issue.
In the Philippines, presidential spokesman Harry Roque said the government finds “no reason” to shut the app down, stressing that President Rodrigo Duterte respects free speech.
Singapore has not expressed privacy concerns, either. The National Youth Council even partnered with TikTok on a campaign that ended in August in which young people were encouraged to show off their talents on the platform.
“I don’t need to include my personal [contact] number on any social media, so it is not really a problem,” said Michael Kwah, a Singaporean actor and a social media influencer. He believes the benefits of TikTok are well worth any risk: “When you post a video, your exposure is instant, so everybody will get to see it.”
Taiwan has banned government agencies from using TikTok and other Chinese video apps, but for now seems content to leave it at that.
Indonesia allows TikTok to operate in the country so long as it pays local taxes. In early August, it added TikTok, along with US tech giants like Amazon and Netflix, to a list of foreign companies required to pay a 10% tax on sales to Indonesian customers.
In Thailand and Malaysia, there has been little sign of a policy response to TikTok. Thailand seems more concerned about Facebook, and how it is dealing with criticism of the monarchy.
ByteDance’s own careful effort to expand globally has helped it avoid a crackdown in many places. It has separated TikTok from its domestic version, Douyin, and its Toutiao news app. “ByteDance has avoided emphasising its ties to China so as to expand its business globally,” said Asei Ito, an associate professor at the University of Tokyo.
The company has hired international executives to run its overseas business, including its recently resigned CEO, Kevin Mayer, who previously worked for Disney. It has also used local celebrities and influencers to promote the app in local markets.
The effort to disguise — or at least not draw attention to — the company’s Chinese roots has been successful in some places. “I didn’t know TikTok is from China,” said a 16-year-old high school student in Japan. Despite concerns over security, 89% of high school girls in Tokyo — TikTok’s main users in the country — are against a ban, according to the market research company Ing.
Unlike Douyin, which is subject to China’s National Intelligence Law that gives the Communist Party sweeping powers to mine company data, TikTok insists the company will not allow the party access to its data.
The company’s recent retreat from Hong Kong is widely seen as an effort to evade Chinese authorities’ demand that it censor content or share user data. This again highlights TikTok’s desire to protect its brand as an independent, global social media platform.
For now, ByteDance has not been put on the US “entity list” that bars those on it from sourcing technology or products from US companies. Huawei is on the list because of US claims that Huawei technology has been used for Chinese state-sponsored spying, a claim the company has always denied. If TikTok is placed on the list, the app would be banned from mobile app stores, causing it to lose new customers.
CB Insights estimates ByteDance is now worth more than US$75 billion. But rising global concerns about TikTok being used as a propaganda tool have cast a shadow over its global ambitions.
President Xi Jinping sees TikTok as an asset that can “tell China’s story well”, and he views social media tool for influencing how the world views China, said Kohei Watanabe, a professor of communications at Hokkaido University. Watanabe said social media like TikTok have become “a battlefield in the propaganda war”, as tensions between the US and China rise.
In India, TikTok was reported to have ordered its India team to censor content critical of the Chinese government, including all mentions of Tibet and the Dalai Lama.
Despite the effort to downplay its ties to China and adopt an apolitical stance, TikTok finds itself at the centre of growing struggle between US and China. Despite taking what it called “extraordinary measures” to protect the privacy and security of US user data, TikTok came under pressure from President Donald Trump to sell its US business, with Microsoft an early suitor.
The Microsoft deal collapsed, but a new deal was emerging last week under which the US software company Oracle would become a minority shareholder in TikTok while ByteDance would retain a majority stake. Significantly, Oracle would take over management and processing of TikTok’s user data in the US — something that would probably satisfy the Trump administration.
China, meanwhile, has announced new restrictions on exports of artificial intelligence technology, including text analysis, content recommendation, speech modelling and voice-recognition. Technologies on the list cannot be exported without a licence from local commerce authorities.
Although China says the rules do not target specific companies, AI and data-analysis technologies owned by ByteDance could be subject to the new restrictions, thereby limiting its growth abroad.
Ito of the University of Tokyo says the TikTok flap may offer other global companies from China a harsh lesson: “If they succeed overseas, they will be eliminated.”
“TikTok is at the mercy of a battle between the two superpowers and there’s nothing the company can do to resist it,” he said. “Ultimately, this could change Chinese companies’ growth strategy. And their global ambitions will be further challenged.”
“TikTok is at the mercy of a battle between the two superpowers and there’s nothing the company can do to resist it” ASEI ITO University of Tokyo