TikTok and Geopolitics

More Than Just an App

TikTok, owned by the Chinese company ByteDance, has over 1 billion monthly active users globally, including approximately 170 million in the United States. It has become the fastest-growing social media platform in history and the primary news source for a significant portion of young people worldwide.

The US government has argued that TikTok poses a national security threat because Chinese law could compel ByteDance to share user data with Chinese intelligence services or to manipulate the algorithm to promote content favorable to the Chinese Communist Party. In 2024, Congress passed legislation requiring ByteDance to divest TikTok's US operations or face a ban — a law that has been challenged in court on First Amendment grounds.

The Splinternet

The TikTok debate is a symptom of a larger phenomenon: the fragmentation of the global internet along geopolitical lines. China has its own internet ecosystem behind the Great Firewall. Russia has increasingly isolated its internet. The EU is asserting regulatory sovereignty through the DSA and GDPR. India banned TikTok and dozens of other Chinese apps in 2020 following a border military clash.

This 'splinternet' challenges the original vision of the internet as a borderless, universal communication medium. Each jurisdiction is asserting control over the digital platforms its citizens use, based on varying combinations of national security concerns, data sovereignty, economic protectionism, and genuine democratic governance.

The TikTok case raises questions with no easy answers: should democratic countries ban apps from adversary nations, even when millions of citizens use and depend on them? Does national security justify restricting a platform that has become a primary communication channel? Where is the line between legitimate regulation and protectionism dressed up as security?