Americans divided on TikTok ban even as Biden campaign joins app, poll shows

Name: Singaporeans fume over US lawmaker grilling of TikTok CEO
Uploaded: 2024-02-17T00:36:04.000Z
Duration: 2 min 15 s
Description: Singaporeans fume over US lawmaker grilling of TikTok CEO

An Associated Press/NORC poll found 31 per cent of US adults favour a nationwide ban on TikTok use, while 35 per cent say they oppose that type of action

A potential TikTok ban reached a fever pitch after regulators raised concerns that a set of Chinese laws could force the company to share user data with Beijing

Reading Time:4 minutes

Why you can trust SCMP

President Joe Biden’s campaign is embracing TikTok to court younger voters ahead of the US presidential elections, but American adults seem to be split about whether the video-sharing app should even operate in the country. Photo:AP

Associated Press

Published: 8:36am, 17 Feb 2024Updated: 4:12pm, 17 Feb 2024

President Joe Biden’s campaign is embracing TikTok to court younger voters ahead of the presidential elections, but US adults have mixed views about whether the video-sharing app should even operate in the country.

A new poll by Associated Press and NORC Center for Public Affairs Research finds a three-way split when it comes to banning the app, with 31 per cent of US adults saying they would favour a nationwide ban on TikTok use, while 35 per cent say they would oppose that type of action.

An additional 31 per cent of adults say they neither favour nor oppose a ban on the social media platform, which is owned by Beijing-based ByteDance. Among those who use TikTok at least daily, a national ban would likely be highly unpopular: 73 per cent say they oppose it.

Talks of a TikTok ban reached a fever pitch in the US early last year after a series of Western lawmakers, governments and regulators raised concerns that a set of Chinese laws could force the company to share user data with the country’s authoritarian government.

Specific evidence of such an incident has not been provided by the US government or TikTok critics, who also posit the platform could be used to spread propaganda beneficial to the Chinese government’s interests or be used to bury or amplify certain topics.

TikTok has vigorously defended itself, saying in part that it has never shared data with the Chinese government and will not do so if asked. The company also has promised to wall off US user data from its parent company through a separate entity run independently from ByteDance and monitored by outside observers. TikTok says new user data is currently being stored on servers maintained by the software company Oracle.

02:15

Singaporeans fume over US lawmaker grilling of TikTok CEO

The White House is expected to announce later this month new efforts it will take aimed at protecting Americans’ sensitive personal data from foreign adversaries, including China, according to a person familiar with the administration’s planning. The person spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the plan that has yet to be formally announced by the White House.