Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-WI), Chairman of the Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), has voiced his apprehension about the social media platform TikTok being a news source for Americans.
Gallagher asserted, "We have clear evidence that Bytedance has done the Chinese Communist Party's bidding." He continued, "They shutdown a news platform when the CCP said it failed to follow appropriate political direction." He also noted that "The head of Bytedance was forced to issue a groveling apology to the CCP and vowed that future product lines would follow socialist party direction." Finally, he questioned, "Clearly there is an intimate relationship between Bytedance and the CCP which raises the question of whether we want to allow a platform like TikTok to be the dominate news platform in America."
TikTok, owned by Chinese company ByteDance, has been under scrutiny by U.S. lawmakers over the past year due to its ownership by ByteDance and alleged ties with the CCP. Lawmakers have expressed concerns about potential misuse of the platform for accessing data from U.S. citizens for spying purposes, as reported by CNN.
Recently, lawmakers have raised new concerns about content on TikTok, leading to renewed calls for a ban in the United States. This increase in calls follows the outbreak of conflict between Israel and Palestine. Lawmakers argue that TikTok promotes pro-Hamas content, while critics claim that TikTok is using its influence to push content supporting Palestinian cause. There are concerns over Americans' growing reliance on TikTok as a significant source of news and alleged manipulation of information by the platform, according to NBC.
In November, Pew Research Center released data highlighting increased usage of TikTok as a news source among American adults over three years. Among all TikTok users, 43% regularly obtain news from this platform. For users above 18 years old, 14% report getting their news from TikTok, with the highest percentage in the 18-29 age group at 32%. The second-highest group is at 15% for ages 30-49. The percentages decline for older adults, with 7% for ages 50-64 and only 3% for those aged 65 and older, according to Pew Research Center.
Gallagher stated, "While I grant that social media in general is a cesspool, and that it has adverse impacts on kids under the age of 30, in particular, the unique problem with TikTok is its basic ownership structure," as reported by CNN. He added, "It is beholden to the Chinese Communist Party, and even if you hate Facebook, or you hate Instagram, or you hate whatever social media company in America, the same thing is not true of those companies. It's not just about the data or it's not just about the spying or espionage; it's whether we want to allow it to become the dominant news platform in America."
