Back Story: The TikTok Ban—Shutting Down Chinese Influence or American’s Voices?
The term “back story” refers to what’s going on behind the story—what’s not on the page that influences the action unfolding on the page.
This month in Back Story we take a look at the story behind the banning of Tik Tok. TikTok is based in China and in 2022 it surpassed Instagram as the most downloaded app in the world.
In the lead-up to the 2020 presidential election, US owned platforms such as Facebook (Meta), Twitter (X) and Instagram (Meta) cooperated with government agencies and Democratic officials to suppress anti-vaccine and pro-Trump sentiment—most famously burying the truth of the Hunter Biden laptop in the weeks before election day.
TikTok (ByteDance) changed a number of its policies in response to pressure from the US government, but there is little if no information about whether the government applied the same pressure on TikTok to suppress anti-vaccine or pro-Trump posts (though politicians did launch an investigation following reports that Trump was trending on TikTok in the election campaign).
So, what really pushed Congress and Biden to act, after five years of rumors? Last weekend (May 3rd—May 5th), Senator Mitt Romney interviewed Secretary of State Anthony Blinken at the Sedona Forum (McCain Institute) and admitted the reason there was such overwhelming support recently for shutting down TikTok was because most of the videos on that platform support Palestine and the plight of the Palestinians. Blinken concurred, saying it was interfering with the narrative. They both agreed Israel was usually much better at PR, but had run into trouble with TikTok; notably, #Blackout2024, the “digital guillotine” (digigine), which blacks out celebrities who aren’t speaking up in support of Palestine, got its start on TikTok. In the week since the Met Gala (when #Blackout2024 began), major influencers such as Kim Kardasian have lost 3 million viewers.
In an election, that could make politicians—well, hot under the collar.
Timeline
2016:
o ByteDance launches a video sharing app in China and then launches a version for foreign countries called TikTok.
2019:
o Reports surface that TikTok is suppressing images and news of the unrest in Hong Kong.
o Rumors circulate that Trump posts are trending heavily on TikTok; US politicians begin a national security investigation of TikTok.
o TikTok becomes the second most downloaded app in the world.
o The Pentagon forbids the use of the app on any of its military phones.
2020:
o President Trump issues an order demanding ByteDance divest US operations.
o Microsoft thinks about acquiring TikTok.
o TikTok files suit against the Trump administration.
· 2021:
o President Biden halts the legal cases against Trump’s ban.
o Later in the year, the number of active monthlyTikTok users reaches 1 billion.
2022:
o TikTok surpasses Instagram as the most downloaded app in the world.
o Rumors circulate that TikTok is accessing private user data.
o FBI warns of TikTok’s potential for manipulating information.
o TikTok migrates its user data to U.S. servers.
2023
o Biden White House bans TikTok app from all federal government phones.
o TikTok takes steps to ensure user privacy.
2024
o April/May: Congress sends a bill demanding that ByteDance sell TikTok or face having the app banned.
o Mitt Romney and Anthony Blinken discuss the fact that there was such overwhelming support for shutting down TikTok because most of the videos support Palestine and the plight of the Palestinians.