“We convinced many countries, and I did it for the most part, not to use Huawei, because we believe it is an insecure security risk,” Trump said at a White House press conference on Tuesday. Earlier in the day, the UK government said it was reversing a decision to allow Huawei to build parts of its new 5G mobile network. According to the announcement, any existing Huawei 5G equipment should be phased out, virtually eliminating the company from a major western market.
The UK reversal is at least a symbolic victory for a White House that has at times struggled to persuade allies of the alleged security risks of using Chinese technology. And now, it can embolden Trump as he considers whether to crack down on TikTok, an app that some policymakers allege is a threat to national security, even when experts say there is little concrete evidence. (A push by Trump to ban TikTok would have some precedent; earlier this month, India said it would ban the app, among others, after a bloody border clash that involved Indian and Chinese forces.)
Huawei and TikTok operate in very different lines of business: One is a telecommunications company dealing with a complicated global supply chain, and the other is a social app adored by teens. But the telecommunications equipment maker’s experience with the Trump administration suggests what might be in store for social media enforcement, from public criticism by government officials and increased regulatory scrutiny to legislation seeking to block access to the U.S. market. , where consumers have downloaded TikTok more than 165 million times.
In a statement, TikTok’s head of public policy in the United States, Michael Beckerman, said there is a lot of “misinformation about TikTok right now.” The company “stores data from US users in Virginia, backed by Singapore, and we work to minimize access in all regions,” he said.. “We welcome conversations with legislators who want to understand our company”
TikTok has struggled to distance itself from China by pointing to its recently hired American CEO and arguing that it stores data from US users on US-based servers, and has also announced possible changes to its corporate structure that could further emphasize its independence from its Chinese parent company, ByteDance.
Huawei did not immediately respond to a request for comment, but has always denied that it represents an espionage risk. The company has insisted that it would challenge any attempt by the Chinese government to acquire its clients’ data.
The United States has taken numerous steps to freeze Huawei from the US market. On Wednesday, the State Department said it was imposing visa restrictions on employees of some Chinese technology companies, including Huawei. Last year, the U.S. government placed Huawei on a Commerce Department watch list, making it impossible for U.S. companies to do business with Huawei without an exemption. It has restricted federal agencies from using Huawei equipment, and the Federal Communications Commission has banned US wireless operators from purchasing Huawei products or services using agency-related funds. Separately, the United States sued Huawei over allegations of theft of trade secrets, charges Huawei called “unfounded and unfair.”
Compared to Huawei, TikTok may seem like a completely different operation. Most importantly, it does not have access to critical infrastructure networks that are essential to national security, said James Lewis, a cybersecurity expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
But TikTok does collect personal information about many Americans, data that lawmakers like Senators Chuck Schumer, Tom Cotton and Josh Hawley have said could undermine national security if it ends up in the possession of hostile foreign governments. With that in mind, policymakers like Hawley have proposed banning TikTok from the devices of the US government.
While the US government would be well within its rights to establish federal workplace policies regarding TikTok, it is less clear how it could compel states or the private sector to do the same, although it may not necessary. At least one company, Wells Fargo (WFC), has already told employees not to have TikTok installed on company devices.
To keep TikTok out of the app stores of U.S. tech giants, Trump could try to put TikTok on the same Commerce Department watch list he put Huawei on. However, Lewis has said the measure could be legally hazy because listed entities generally violate laws or regulations on trade, gun control or theft of intellectual property. There is little evidence linking TikTok with that kind of behavior.
It is still not entirely clear what the Trump administration can try to do to TikTok, but there is clearly bipartisan hostility towards TikTok. That led TikTok to rapidly expand its presence in Washington. Beckerman said the company is expanding its team in the region and creating so-called “Transparency Centers” in the country’s capital and in Los Angeles “so that lawmakers and invited experts can see for themselves how we moderate content and maintain the data of our users for sure. “
Still, when policymakers are generally on the same page, very little can get in their way. That’s a lesson Huawei learned, even when its trading partners, ranging from big and powerful to small and rural, warned that it would be extremely expensive to boot Huawei equipment.
What TikTok has that Huawei doesn’t have is a culturally significant and politically active user base. But just because TikTok users seem to have successfully disrupted a Trump campaign once, that doesn’t necessarily translate to the kind of influence that matters within the White House.
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