TikTok: Technology Overview and Issues

"TikTok is a globally popular video-sharing smartphone application (app) owned by ByteDance Ltd., a privately held company headquartered in Beijing, China. It is under increasing scrutiny by the U.S. government as a potential privacy and security risk to U.S. citizens. This is because ByteDance, as with all technology companies doing business in China, is subject to Chinese laws that require companies operating in the country to turn over user data when asked by the Chinese government. Researchers differ over how TikTok data collection compares with other social media apps and whether TikTok poses a threat to the privacy and security of its U.S. users.

TikTok launched in the United States in August 2018. The app is available in about 150 countries in 75 languages and has approximately 1 billion monthly active users. In the United States, the app has approximately 150 million monthly active users. TikTok’s appeal lies heavily in what has been called its “addictive” video feed, called the “For You” feed. The app builds this feed through a “recommendation engine” that uses artificial intelligence (AI) technologies and data mining practices. According to the company, the recommendation engine relies on a complex set of weighted factors to recommend content, including hashtags and videos watched previously, as well as the kind of user device. TikTok critics cite problems with how much data TikTok collects from and about its users and with how that data is stored—and could be shared. Some critics have also raised concerns about how TikTok promotes certain content to users and the potential to spread misinformation or propaganda.

On August 6, 2020, then-President Trump signed an executive order aimed at stopping TikTok from doing business in the United States. If the order had gone into effect on September 27, 2020, as scheduled, it would have prohibited any U.S. company or person from “transacting” with ByteDance. On August 14, 2020, President Trump issued a second executive order stating that ByteDance must divest from all assets that support TikTok’s U.S. operations and destroy all previously collected U.S. user data. Divestiture may be accomplished by finding a U.S. buyer for TikTok. The requirements were designed to limit the Chinese government’s access to current and future data from U.S. TikTok users. ByteDance did not want to divest from TikTok and sued the Trump Administration. In 2021, President Biden rescinded both executive orders, but his Administration is still considering options to curtail TikTok’s ability to operate in the United States.

On September 14, 2020, Oracle announced that it had reached an agreement with ByteDance to “serve as [the company’s] trusted technology provider” in the United States. It is unclear whether this deal would have satisfied the conditions in President Trump’s now-rescinded executive orders. Then-Secretary of the Treasury Steven Mnuchin said that the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) would review the proposal and present President Trump with its opinion. Negotiations between TikTok and CFIUS remain ongoing.

During the 118th Congress, some Members have introduced various bills that would affect TikTok’s ability to continue operating in the United States. For example, Representative Michael McCaul introduced the Deterring America’s Technological Adversaries (DATA) Act (H.R. 1153) on February 24, 2023, which was reported favorably by the House Foreign Affairs Committee on May 16, 2023 (H.Rept. 118-63); Representative Kat Cammack introduced the Chinese-owned Applications Using the Information of Our Nation (CAUTION) Act of 2023 (H.R. 750) on February 2, 2023; Representative Ken Buck introduce the No TikTok on United States Devices Act (H.R. 503) on January 25, 2023; Senator Josh Hawley introduced the No TikTok on United States Devices Act (S. 85) on January 25, 2023; Representative Brian Babin introduced the Terminate TikTok on Campus Act of 2023 (H.R. 231) on January 10, 2023; and Representative Jack Bergman introduced the Protecting Personal Data from Foreign Adversaries Act (H.R. 57) on January 9, 2023. Additionally, the House Committee on Energy and Commerce held a hearing on TikTok on March 23, 2023, titled “TikTok: How Congress Can Safeguard American Data Privacy and Protect Children from Online Harms.”.."
TikTok