The USA government has announced that the social networks TikTok and WeChat will be banned in the USA starting from September 20. It’s another step of President Donald Trump’s administration in the clash with Chinese social media, accused of spying on American citizens. In particular, TikTok’s situation is complicated because in recent days the news of a partnership with Oracle arrived, however, it didn’t satisfy the White House, which demands the social network’s sale to an American company. The Chinese Ministry of Commerce accused the USA of bullying. Behind this clash there’s the problem of controlling user activity, the reason why some American social networks are banned in China.
TikTok, also known as Douyin, born as musical.ly, is a social network that allows you to create audio-video clips. WeChat is a text and voice chat social network. They’re produced by Chinese developers but are now widespread around the world. They were declared dangerous to the USA national security because they’re accused of logging user activity and providing all the data to the Chinese government. Because of this, they also had problems in Russia and India.
The clash between the USA and China over TikTok and WeChat is part of the larger clash over espionage and mass surveillance. Various American social media are certainly no better than Chinese ones, to the point that some are banned in China. For years Facebook has been at the center of controversies and scandals concerning the use and above all the abuse of user activity data. The most recent case concerns the alleged unauthorized use of users’ webcams by Instagram, which will probably be discussed in a USA court.
In essence, the Trump administration would like to protect American users, but only because in this case they’re controlled by Chinese social networks. Now there is a ban on the download of TikTok and WeChat apps and an ultimatum that demands the sale of TikTok by November 12, 2020, to an American company given that the partnership with Oracle announced in recent days leaves the property to a Chinese company. The Chinese government accuses the USA of bullying, but right now it’s difficult to determine which of these two nations is worse from the point of view of mass surveillance. The clash will continue, but it concerns everything but the users’ interests.
