Turning off TikTok is a big risk for the Democrats
Published: March 21, 2024 2:01pm EDT
Thomas Gift, UCL
Popular social media platform TikTok stands accused of holding US data in China, fostering censorship, and spreading disinformation. Its popularity poses a dilemma for US politicians, but especially Democrats who have heavily relied on the app to reach its core base of young voters.
Is it “time up” for TikTok in the US? And will it be the Democrats’ own leader, President Joe Biden, who ultimately decides to close down the platform heading into the 2024 elections?
On March 13 the US House of Representatives voted 352 to 65 to order TikTok’s parent company, Beijing-based ByteDance, to sell the app (which is believed to have 150 million US users) or else face prohibition in the US over its alleged links to the Chinese Communist party.
The bill follows reports that TikTok’s American executives are already exploring options for voluntarily splitting with ByteDance in a preemptive move to avoid regulatory scrutiny.
Although the bipartisan bill is by no means guaranteed to pass the Senate – where Democrat majority leader Chuck Schumer has not committed to bring it to a vote on the floor – Biden has said he would sign the proposal if it comes to his desk.
The campaign implications of this loom large. Many Democrats fear that banning TikTok in the lead-up to the election would be a self-inflicted political disaster, particularly when it comes to courting young voters.