TikTok’s success provides a striking example of Western complacency towards its own survival. After a decade shaped by the disruptive influence of American social media behemoths such as X and Facebook, our governments have permitted the stratospheric growth of a China-owned platform with an even greater capacity for malign influence. With Beijing’s intentions for global economic and military dominance growing clearer by the day, the deteriorating geopolitical landscape has laid bare just how wilfully naive the West has been towards adversaries playing a sophisticated long game.
The TikTok algorithm is singularly predisposed to support the rapid spread of misinformation
Each day that passes without regulation, TikTok becomes more embedded as an information source for young citizens. Meanwhile, all of Britain’s major political parties – including the Conservatives, who banned the app’s use in Whitehall when in power – are increasing their perverse dependence on a means of voter communication and campaigning they do not control.
Briefed by the intelligence community on the substantial national security risks it poses, US congress passed legislation to force TikTok’s parent company ByteDance to sell the app into American ownership or face a wholesale ban. After ByteDance refused to comply with the divestment order, the app was swiftly removed in the final days of the Biden administration. President Donald Trump granted it a 75-day stay of execution on assuming office last month. But rather than standing by and waiting for Trump’s next move, Britain should act to secure its own interests by pursuing a domestic consumer ban of TikTok.
TikTok poses many significant risks to national security. Despite the app’s scramble to establish regional data centres for Western markets in 2023, the fact remains that the Chinese Communist party reserves the right under its 2017 National Intelligence Law to demand access to any data held by a Chinese-owned company. This means TikTok cannot ultimately offer any safeguards to protect citizens’ data from falling into the hands of the Chinese state. Research has also identified TikTok’s alarming surveillance capabilities, such as tracking users’ keystrokes on external websites when using the in-app browser, and several instances when Western journalists have had their movements on the app monitored.
The most pernicious national security issue, however, comes from TikTok’s uniquely addictive algorithm, and the nature of its moderation practices. It comes as no surprise that the app has been found to have instructed its content moderators to censor videos mentioning subjects such as Tiananmen Square and China’s persecuted Uighur minority.
But the way in which the app most faithfully serves China’s geopolitical interests in consolidating its dominance over the global order is through its influence on the health and cohesion of Western democracies. China believes that weak societies are diminished adversaries. TikTok’s algorithm has the capacity to dynamically adapt to users’ preferences and constantly evolves to drive them down new rabbit holes of interest. The strategic value of TikTok to the Chinese state is evident in the fact that, while the app is banned in its own home country, the algorithm underpinning its popularity is subject to Chinese export controls and fiercely guarded by the state.
The TikTok algorithm is singularly predisposed to support the rapid spread of misinformation, and has performed woefully during election campaigns across the globe – most recently, catapulting the Russia-backed surprise candidate Calin Georgescu to prominence in the Romanian elections in December. TikTok has approved staggering numbers of political advertisements and news videos containing misinformation during American elections in recent years, and demonstrated political bias in boosting the visibility of certain candidates and issues over others in crucial races, including last year’s US presidential election.
The social consequences are alarming. TikTok has been accused of amplifying the reach of anti-vaccine misinformation to vulnerable groups in the Covid-19 pandemic, spreading pro-Hamas videos after the 7 October atrocities against Israel, and allowing Osama Bin Laden’s ‘Letter to America’ terrorist propaganda to go viral, reaching millions of impressionable young users on the app.
With TikTok now a primary news source for at least 40 per cent of all young British adults, this is, contrary to the assertions of Treasury minister Darren Jones last month, not just an issue about ‘cat videos’. This is about the health of our democracy.
Reining in TikTok without alienating an already disaffected generation will be challenging. Many TikTok users see no distinction between the risks posed by Chinese versus American-owned firms. Politicians must convince them of the distinctions between liberal and authoritarian societies – however imperfect our democracies may be – and the responsibilities we all carry as citizens to support our collective resilience.
For policy makers, the TikTok question should be viewed in a similar vein to the decisions around Huawei’s role in the provision of digital 5G networks. The British government banned mobile telephone networks from using the Chinese firm’s 5G technology in 2020, with companies forced to phase out their kit by 2027. In TikTok’s case, the infrastructure at stake is societal and democratic. As with Huawei, the West has failed to produce a competitive alternative to a Chinese product, meaning there will be painful costs to bear in its restriction.
The government’s efforts to reform the Enterprise Act 2002 last year to prevent the foreign ownership of media organisations should be resumed and harnessed to address TikTok’s increasing role as a source of political information. Britain and its allies would never have been so complacent about Russia controlling major news platforms during the Cold War. Our adversaries are outflanking us because we have deprioritised the mission of capturing ‘hearts and minds’ – and failed to recognise that this project begins at home.
The government must collaborate with allies to create an environment in the West where tech innovation can flourish, producing compelling alternative platforms without the presiding national security risks. If an app like TikTok is deemed unsafe for use on official devices, there’s no reason why citizens should also be exposed.
A less predictable Washington may require Britain to take decisions on China without America’s lead. This cannot only mean Britain pursuing greater openness and closer ties with Beijing. If we are truly clear-eyed about our long-term interests and the geopolitical stakes, we must act to prevent an authoritarian power like China from controlling such an important slice of our public sphere and ban TikTok.
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