On March 23rd, the scene of the US House of Representatives asked Tiktok, the capital of Tiktok, and one day it may be regarded as a turning point in the journey of globalization.The members of the hearing have limited understanding of technology. In the face of the fierce inquiries of them for more than five hours, Singaporeans, instead of Chinese people, have performed well in defending the Chinese ownership of their company.
The Bayeng government regards Tiktok as a potential national security threat and requires its Chinese -funded parent company to sell the platform to a US -funded company, otherwise it may be disabled.However, Zhou's funding proposal has a major equity of TIKTOK, but the operation in the United States is responsible for the science and technology giants located in Texas.American user data stores on the Oracle server and allows Oracle to review how TIKTOK uses algorithms to recommend content to users.At the same time, the Chinese government stated that they opposed forced sale.
But Zhou's capital "Project Texas" is very likely to persuade Congress or President Bayeng.American legislators have reason to do not have confidence in the Chinese government's intention.Over the years, it must be a Chinese hacker funded by the state. He has invaded the US government and the United States -based companies, stealing trillions of dollars of intellectual property rights.Although the number is difficult to confirm, the general phenomenon of Chinese hacking has aroused the vigilance of global experts, especially in the Asianan country.
The restrictions on TIKTOK in the United States reflect the increasing increasing trust in China. This is one of the very few Democratic and Republican parties that can reach consensus.China's "firewall" can effectively intercept the Internet platform in the United States, and the proposed ban on the United States may accelerate the pace of globalization.
But attacking Tiktok may be easier than ban.Tiktok has 150 million US users, one of the most popular applications in the United States.According to reports, the US adults use Tiktok for 56 minutes per day.From the perspective of domestic politics, the proposed TIKTOK ban is significantly different from the recent prohibition of sales and video equipment from Chinese manufacturers such as Huawei and other Chinese manufacturers.
If TIKTOK is disabled, in addition to the opposition of users who are relying on this platform, because their interests are damaged; public opinion surveys show that nearly two -thirds of young people will also oppose, and Tiktok is deeply 30 years old.The following platform is welcome.Given that people of this age are obviously inclined to the Democratic Party, their opposition may threaten Biden's re -election opportunity.Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a Democratic female member of Democratic Party, who loves to generations, has stood up to oppose the ban (of course she expressed her position on Tiktok).
Of course, Zhou's capital scores from young people.He argued that if TIKTOK is disabled to protect American voters from monitoring and manipulation, Congress should formulate plans and solve the problem of abuse on the American platform (they all look forward to driving Tiktok, the biggest competitor).After all, Cambridge Analytica scandal shows that the error information and privacy violations on Facebook finally helped former US President Trump win the 2016 election.Psychologist Robert Epstein believes that Google's search engine manipulate voters to prefer Democratic candidates (although the substantial impact on quantity has controversial).
Therefore, Zhou Yousheng said that it makes sense.All social media platforms seem to be supervised by the government.The Federal Trade Commission is currently considering cracking down on business monitoring and lax data security measures of science and technology giants. Twitter is a serious problem that has long -term existence of false information and slander sources. It has become worse since Musk took over.
For TIKTOK, unfortunately, it is much easier for it to not be owned by China than to regulate large technology companies.Regardless of the popularity, TIKTOK is only a front line of the current Sino -US science and technology war. The United States also persuades allies not to let Huawei set up a 5G network for them, and the latest sanctions that are not allowed to sell advanced semiconductors to Chinese companies.What's more, TIKTOK's Dostok's proposal seems wise, but Chinese hackers cannot easily steal data from the platform headquarters in Beijing's parent company. This is difficult to believe.
The opposition between the United States and China is becoming increasingly fierce. It is very slim to reach a compromise solution that can solve the security of the two countries.For example, China can re -consider its own protectionist policy and allow U.S. -funded technology companies to operate in the Chinese market, but this will endanger the official iron fist control of the Chinese information ecosystem.Similarly, the United States can require high premium to sell Tiktok's business in the United States as a part of compensation for the Chinese government's "smashing and grabbing".Although this solution is a certain respect for international law, it is difficult to make Americans buy it, because China has not paid any fees for intellectual property rights in American companies over the years.
Those who dilute the U.S. potential ban may have a devastating impact on TIKTOK, and they fail to understand the economics of social media.Advertisers can reach the ability of the American audience, which is the value of the social media platform.Once any platform is determined to be illegal, it will lose the value of advertising.Needless to say, some users will try to bypass the ban through a virtual network (VPN), but this may be difficult and cannot avoid losing advertising revenue.
Tiktok played a beautiful battle, but it may lose the war.According to reports, US legislators have been promoting the ban on Tiktok.National security concerns related to TIKTOK are indeed necessary to deal with it, but it is forbidden to protect Americans from monitoring and manipulation.Unfortunately, this also means the beginning of the end of the global Internet.
Author Kenneth Rogoff is a former chief economist of the International Monetary Fund, a professor of economics and public policy at Harvard University
English Original: Tick Tiktok Goes Globalization
All rights reserved: Project syndicate, 2023.
