SINGAPORE — A storm is brewing between the United States government and a social media application used to film pranks and trendy dance routines.

Last Friday (July 31), US President Donald Trump declared that he would ban popular mobile application TikTok in the country.

The app, which is owned by Chinese firm ByteDance, allows users to produce short, 15-second videos overlaid with special effects. Videos typically involve dance or comedy routines, or users lip-syncing to songs.

TikTok has soared in popularity since it was first introduced to the US three years ago.

Nearly 165 million, or 8 per cent, of TikTok’s 2 billion downloads worldwide came from the US, putting it in the top three countries for downloads, market research firm Sensor Tower reported.

Media analytics company Comscore said that TikTok’s total unique visitors in the US had more than doubled within a year of its introduction, from 2.6 million in October 2017 to 7.5 million the following year. It is especially popular among younger users, commonly referred to as Generation Z, loosely categorised as the generation born from 1996.

WHERE DID IT ALL START?

So how did an application featuring dancing teenagers earn the ire of the US president?

Mr Trump’s declaration last Friday to ban TikTok, possibly through an executive order, is a result of fears that the app poses a threat to US’ national security.

US secretary of state Mike Pompeo said on Monday that the app was among several others owned by Chinese software companies such as messaging platform WeChat that are “feeding data directly to the Chinese Communist Party”.

This data included facial recognition patterns, information about residence, phone numbers, their friends and who they are connected to, Mr Pompeo said at an interview on American news channel Fox News.

US lawmakers have also sounded the alarm over how TikTok could be used to interfere with the US presidential elections in November.

"We are greatly concerned that the (Chinese Communist Party) could use its control over TikTok to distort or manipulate (political) conversations to sow discord among Americans and to achieve its preferred political outcomes," several senators wrote in a letter last Tuesday to the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, the acting secretary of the Department of Homeland Security and the director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

WHY PICK A FIGHT WITH TIKTOK NOW?

The threat to ban TikTok comes in the midst of rising tensions between the US and China over a host of various issues such as trade and China’s role in the Covid-19 pandemic.

Already, other Chinese companies have been affected by the growing discord between the superpowers.

Huawei and ZTE, two Chinese companies that make equipment for mobile phone networks, were designated as national security threats in June. This means that telecommunication providers in the US cannot use government subsidies to buy equipment from these companies for their networks.

Chinese gaming company Beijing Kunlun was also forced to sell popular dating app Grindr, which targets the gay community, to US-based company San Vicente Acquisition Partners in March. This came after the US government raised concerns that the data from the app could be used by the Chinese government to blackmail or influence American officials.

The US government’s war against TikTok had been brewing as early as last year.

Last November, the Trump administration launched a national security review of Chinese company ByteDance’s acquisition of American social media app Musical.ly, which was eventually merged with TikTok.

It came after US lawmakers raised concerns over the possibility of China censoring content seen by American users and that the app could be the target of foreign influence campaigns.

For example, US Senator Marco Rubio had questioned in October 2019 why TikTok had only a few videos of the Hong Kong protests when news about the protests had been dominating international headlines for months.

IS TIKTOK REALLY A THREAT?

TikTok maintains that it does not share users’ personal data with the Chinese government.

It insists that American user data is stored in servers based within the US and that China does not have jurisdiction over content on the app.

A Wall Street Journal article on July 7 quoted a TikTok spokesperson as saying that the Chinese government has never asked for user data. If asked, TikTok would also refuse the request, he added.

“TikTok has an American chief executive officer and is owned by a private company that is backed by some of the best-known US investors,” the spokesperson said.

However, US senators have pointed out that TikTok’s parent company ByteDance remains governed by Chinese laws.

The data of American users is stored in servers in the US and Singapore but it can be shared with ByteDance and other affiliates, TikTok’s website stated.

This means that information collected by TikTok, such as a user’s location or internet address, could potentially be accessed by the Chinese government, the US authorities said.

For some experts, the kind of information collected by TikTok is comparable to that collected by other social media platforms such as Facebook.

However, TikTok is facing scrutiny because Chinese apps have a reputation for grabbing more data than required to provide their services, Dr Jon Callas said in an interview with the Wall Street Journal on July 7. Mr Callas is a senior technology fellow with the American Civil Liberties Union.

A TikTok spokesperson told the news outlet that the app collects less data than some US tech companies such as Facebook or Google, which track activity across devices.

Mr Will Strafach, the creator of privacy app Guardian Firewall, told news outlet Wired in a July 17 article that the data collected by TikTok appeared “tame” and is largely similar to those collected by its US-owned competitors. This includes data such as a user’s device model, operating system and the time zone they are in.

However, some analysts have flagged TikTok’s links to China as a cause for worry. In an article published by news website Verge in November 2019, Dr Samantha Hoffman, an analyst at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, said that the Chinese government collects bulk data overseas and then uses it to help with things related to state security such as propaganda and identifying public sentiment on specific issues.

“It’s about controlling the media environment globally. Once you have control, you can use it to influence and shape the conversation,” Dr Hoffman said.

CAN AN APP BE BANNED?

Other than Mr Trump’s declaration to ban TikTok, it is unclear what will happen next, with the US government yet to offer any information on when or how this will be done.

However, it could seek to limit TikTok’s reach in several ways.

An article by the New York Times published last Saturday suggests that the US could block some foreign products from American app stores.

It could also prohibit American companies from selling goods to ByteDance without a licence.

India, which banned TikTok in June following a border skirmish with China, made its internet service providers block access to TikTok servers, preventing the app's videos from being viewed.

WHAT'S NEXT

At the moment, it looks like ByteDance will sell off TikTok’s US operations to an American company instead.

Tech firm Microsoft said on Sunday in a blog post that it is in talks to buy over TikTok’s services in the US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand and operate the app in these markets.

The talks, which were first reported in July, were cast into doubt after Mr Trump said on Friday that he would move to ban TikTok.

However, Microsoft’s chief executive officer Satya Nadella said that he had discussed the company’s acquisition of TikTok with Mr Trump, and that the tech giant “fully appreciates the importance” of addressing his concerns.

“(Microsoft) is committed to acquiring TikTok subject to a complete security review and providing proper economic benefits to the United States, including the United States Treasury,” Microsoft said in its blog post.

It aims to conclude talks with ByteDance by Sept 15.

The firm added that if the talks go through, all private data of TikTok’s American users will be transferred to and remain in the US. Microsoft will also ensure that any data currently stored or backed up outside the US will be deleted from servers after it is transferred to US data centres.

While it is yet unclear how things will unfold for TikTok in the US, US-based TikTok influencers have started bidding goodbyes to their viewers.

In a tearful video on Saturday, influencer Hope Schwing thanked her 98,000 TikTok viewers for “making (her) dreams come true” and called on them to follow her on social media platform Instagram instead.

Like her, other TikTok users will be turning to other social media platforms if the ban goes through.