An Urban's Rural View

Last April, Congress passed, and President Joe Biden signed an extraordinary law that could end up banning, in the United States at least, a product 170 million Americans use -- TikTok.

The law gives the Chinese-owned social-media company until next Jan. 19 to sell to a non-Chinese owner or cease operations. TikTok says a sale is impossible and the Chinese government opposes it. If TikTok fails to convince the courts to overturn the law, it might have to shut down.

It's an extraordinary situation, indeed. Congress is not in the habit of legislating companies out of business. And this isn't just any company.

It's a company half the country patronizes -- some would say it is addicted to. It's a company whose platform both presidential candidates used to woo voters. (They both at various times favored drastic action against the company but its reach is such that they apparently felt compelled to use it.)

Needless to say, it is TikTok's ownership by the Chinese company ByteDance that made Congress take this unusual step. TikTok has collected personal information on all those American customers. If China's government demanded that information be turned over, ByteDance would have no choice but to obey.

Legislators feared China would use the information in hostile ways. TikTok defenders say China's massive spy network already has or could easily obtain the information without tapping TikTok. That's debatable, but what's not debatable is that with TikTok under Beijing's sway, there's a risk its famed algorithm could be adjusted to promote pro-China deep fakes, or worse.

"Congress is not acting to punish ByteDance, TikTok or any other individual company," Senate Commerce Committee Chairwoman Maria Cantwell said as the Senate was passing the bill last April. "Congress is acting to prevent foreign adversaries from conducting espionage, surveillance, maligned operations, harming vulnerable Americans, our servicemen and women, and our U.S. government personnel." (https://apnews.com/…)

Americans don't seem to want the protection Congress offered. According to Pew Research, only 32% of U.S. adults support a TikTok ban. (https://www.pewresearch.org/…)

It's not that they're soft on China. According to another poll, this one by the Chicago Council on Global Affairs, Americans give China a 26 on a one-to-100 scale, the lowest favorability rating since the council started polling in 1978. (https://globalaffairs.org/…) A record 58% view China as a "critical threat to the vital interest of the United States." (https://globalaffairs.org/…)

There are, when you think about it, two disconnects here. One is between how seriously worried the public is about China and how unworried it apparently is about TikTok. Maybe that's because for so many of its users, TikTok is about popular culture and entertainment rather than politics. (https://www.pewresearch.org/…)

The other disconnect is between the public's opposition to banning TikTok and the overwhelming bipartisan support the ban got in both the House and the Senate. Congress and the public aren't usually so far apart.

The Supreme Court could well make the final decision on TikTok's future. Don't assume the company has no chance of prevailing there. The justices will have to weigh national-security considerations against First Amendment freedom-of-speech rights -- not just TikTok's, but the company's 100,000-plus "influencers," some of whom make a living from their TikTok posts.

Facebook, X and other American social-media operations are banned in China and there's no court they can appeal to there. It would be ironic if the courts allowed TikTok to continue here.

The irony would be doubled if Washington lets TikTok off the hook while rejecting the bid by a Japanese company, Nippon Steel, bid to acquire U.S. Steel.

Both presidential candidates opposed it, not least because the United Steelworkers Union is against it and Pennsylvania was seen as a swing state in the election. President Biden opposed it, too.

He asked the cabinet-level Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S., or CFIUS, to investigate whether the acquisition would pose a national security risk. A CFIUS decision was postponed until after the election.

If the final answers are yes to TikTok and no to Nippon Steel, you can bet folks in Tokyo will be wondering whether the U.S. knows the difference between an ally and an adversary.

Urban Lehner can be reached at urbanize@gmail.com

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