TikTok, the overseas version of the Chinese social media outlet Shakespeare, which has been named by the U.S. government as a possible national security threat, recently announced that it will launch a guide to the 2020 election on its app, providing users with information about the U.S. election. Media ethics law experts and analysts say that TikTok’s move will not only fail to address the U.S. government’s concerns, but may even trigger further U.S. strikes.
TikTok: A Guide to Candidate and Voting Information
TikTok said Tuesday (Sept. 29) that the guide will allow users to obtain information on federal, state and local candidates from the nonpartisan BallotReady organization; and from the National Association of Secretaries of State (NASSCOM). This guide will include information from the National Association of Secretaries of State (NASS) on how states vote. In addition, the guide will also include information about media from the digital literacy project “MediaWise”.
Earlier, President Trump signed an executive order requiring Apple and Google to remove TikTok from its shelves by midnight on September 27 due to concerns that its Chinese parent company ByteDance’s handling of user data posed a threat to U.S. national security. But a temporary ruling by U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols in Washington, D.C., on Sept. 27 blocked the ban.
However, U.S. Treasury Secretary Mnuchin told an investor conference on Wednesday that TikTok must be shut down if the deal it struck with Oracle does not meet U.S. national security requirements.
Given that TikTok’s continued ability to operate in the US remains an open question, it comes at a time when it is launching a new feature introducing the US presidential election, providing its 100 million US users with detailed information about the candidates and how to vote. What is its purpose? Is it legal to do so?
Lawyers and legal experts in the field have told VOA that there is no question about the legality of the new feature TikTok is introducing.
Clay Zhu, an attorney and partner at DeHeng Law Firm in Silicon Valley, California, said, “I think what TikTok is doing is legal. It’s free speech protected by the First Amendment, and even content that the government finds offensive is protected by law.”
Cotterill: TikTok is trying to put a protective film on itself.
Jane Kirtley, a professor of media ethics and law at the University of Minnesota, agrees that TikTok has no problem with the ‘legality’ of doing so. Under First Amendment jurisprudence, it is virtually impossible for the government to restrict the publication of such content,” she says. The previous Trump administration’s executive order banning the app was blocked from being enforced by a federal judge, which illustrates this point.”
Cotterill added that TikTok claims it does not produce the content itself, and that the app’s content is sourced from several trusted sources: such as the National Association of Secretaries of State. “As such, it puts a respectable protective coating on its apps.”
Weitz: TikTok has been used to disrupt Trump campaign rallies
Political and security analysts, however, argue that regardless of TikTok’s intent in launching the election app, the move is sure to be seen by some as encouraging anti-Trump voters to cast their ballots in November’s election.
Richard Weitz, Ph.D., director of the Center for Political-Military Analysis at the Hudson Institute, a Washington think tank, told VOA that President Trump’s political opponents had earlier used the app to disrupt previous Trump campaign rallies by encouraging people to register to attend but not actually show up; leading to many empty seats in the venue.
“Even though TikTok’s new app has the good goal of educating voters; the impression of prior experience will be hard to erase,” said Dr. Weitz.
On the other hand, Cortley, a professor of media ethics and law, analyzed that given that one focus of the Trump administration’s crackdown on TikTok is based on national security considerations; it is therefore predictable that the administration will argue that TikTok is spreading misinformation about elections and voting, which would constitute another threat to national security.
“However, I think it would be difficult to prove; even if it were proven, I don’t see how the government could legally prevent TikTok from doing so,” Cotterill said. “The Federal Election Commission does have the authority to address false campaign finance filings and deceptive political advertising; but I’m not sure it’s would have jurisdiction over voter misinformation – assuming TikTok is doing so.”
Zhu Koliang: TikTok has become a geopolitical issue
As the Trump administration’s allegations against TikTok are based on concerns that a Chinese-owned company could pose a security risk to the United States, will TikTok’s move to launch a U.S. election guide app help allay U.S. concerns? Would it even be counterproductive to make the U.S. government more worried about it?
These are not just legal issues, but a geopolitical issue, says Koliang Zhu, a lawyer practicing in California’s Silicon Valley.
“All politicians want to be tough on China, and some of the so-called ‘security’ concerns are just election rhetoric. The U.S. cannot afford to be isolationist in its dealings with China,” said the lawyer who has represented individual U.S. users of “WeChat” in similar lawsuits.
Coincidentally, the Trump administration previously announced that it would ban WeChat on September 20, and after the U.S. Department of Commerce released details of the ban on September 18, the United States WeChat Users Association (USWUA) filed a lawsuit against the U.S. government in San Francisco federal court that day, asking that the ban be lifted. A federal judge ruled on September 19 to stay the Commerce Department’s injunction.
At the same time, other Chinese groups in the U.S. are using the WeChat platform, which was banned by President Trump’s order, to form groups across the country in support of Trump’s re-election campaign.
The Nikkei Shimbun reported on the Chinese American Alliance’s WeChat campaign in support of Trump’s re-election. The Chinese American Alliance’s members are professionals in their 40s and 50s who came to the United States early in their careers and are now entering the American middle class.
The group’s president, Chuck Li, told the Nikkei News, “Our numbers may be small, but we’re not an underrepresented minority group, and we’re doing well economically.”
After seeing President Trump’s “WeChat” and “TikTok” bans blocked by federal judges, many Chinese Americans said that these incidents exemplify the values of free speech and a healthy “separation of powers” political system that the United States promotes.
The U.S. federal judge’s decision to suspend the WeChat and TikTok bans is based on the First Amendment right to freedom of speech. The federal judge found that, while national security interests are important, the government has not provided sufficient evidence that banning these social media applications for all U.S. users would be sufficient to address national security concerns.
Zhu Keliang, an attorney who has represented individual U.S. users of WeChat, said, “Chinese companies need to fully accept and abide by the rules of the countries in which they operate. At the same time, if the U.S. government chooses to arbitrarily ban apps and shut down Chinese companies, then we are no different than the Chinese government.
Cotterill: TikTok may be shut down further
However, legal experts and political analysts are not optimistic that TikTok’s and WeChat’s launch of the U.S. presidential election app feature will help them assuage the U.S. government’s concerns that they could jeopardize U.S. national security.
According to Cotry, a professor of media ethics and law at the University of Minnesota, while it may seem like a way to promote voting, especially among younger potential voters, in a public spirit and nonpartisan manner, “the current situation, on the other hand, is one in which there is a lot of room for improvement. But, “on the other hand, at a time when there are legitimate concerns about outside interference in U.S. elections, this could be met with skepticism and could trigger further steps by the Trump administration to shut it down,” she said.
Dr. Weitz, a political and security expert at the Hudson Institute, argues that regardless of how the recent judicial delays with TikTok and WeChat play out, given Chinese government requirements, Chinese-owned U.S. businesses must comply with Chinese security requirements even if they operate overseas. This would also correspond to the treatment of many U.S. companies operating in China, which the Chinese government typically prohibits from doing so.
“Looking at it this way, the outlook for similar Chinese-owned companies in the U.S. is bleak,” Weitz said.
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