Why Did a Politician Who Found Fame Online Vote to “Ban” TikTok?
North Carolina Congressman Jeff Jackson apologizes via TikTok for his recent vote for the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act. Source: @jeffjacksonnc via TikTok
After only a brief stalk of North Carolina Representative Jeff Jackson’s TikTok, you can begin to understand a sort of “naivete" that the freshman politician tries to convey. However, almost all of his recent videos have over one million views, and which could be due to Jackson’s honesty about current Congress happenings, which encourage a young TikTok voter base to dip their toe into the complicated world of politics. Recently the new congressman has faced backlash when he voted for a bill that could effectively ban the app that solidified his connection to his constituents and the nation.
On March 13, bipartisan legislation was passed in the House of Representatives that would be one step closer to banning TikTok. While the bill has only been passed through the House, President Biden has indicated his support of the bill, hence the only hurdle is a Senate vote.
The bill, officially known as the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act, has a little more nuance than just a blanket ban. This act would give TikTok, owned by the Chinese media company ByteDance, six months to sell the app or TikTok will be shut down in the United States. However, TikTok’s value has been predicted to be around $50 billion; a price tag that many billionaires might have to break their piggy banks for.
Even if ByteDance wanted to conserve their US market, experts say there is little faith in a buyer meeting the high valuation of TikTok, leading many to believe this act truly means the end of TikTok in the United States.
As a congressman who gained a large reputation on the app, many users saw this as an act of betrayal. On March 16, Jackson took to the platform to address the vote, apologizing for his lack of transparency. “I would feel like I deserved an explanation,” he stated.
Both in the two-minute clip and in a quote to the Charlotte Observer, Rep. Jackson emphasizes that he did not agree with all parts of the bill, especially the ban. But after information from intelligence officials that he found “genuinely alarming,” he wanted to vote in the interest of making TikTok a better app, mentioning he doesn’t believe that TikTok will ultimately become banned.
The move to remove TikTok from US markets comes from the large sway the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has over the government, and subsequently, corporations. In 2019, an updated cybersecurity law now legally grants China and the CCP the ability to collect user data from companies. CCP influence in business operations is nothing new. Back in 2020, the government along with the CCP regulated the world’s largest IPOs, which would’ve generated $34 billion for the finance and tech company Ant. This previous ruling makes many believe that an offer to buy TikTok would fail, even if it was large enough to meet ByteDance’s initial offer. TikTok denies any influence from the CCP, stating they take action against influence operations and have been transparent in reporting them publicly.
However, concerns about user privacy are not exclusive to government intervention. Despite concerns by many that TikTok may be mining user’s data, experts have countered that the bill will not stop access to data collection from another country. In 2021, the Washington Post found that China collects data on Western countries through public opinion analysis software on social media apps. There are several possible reasons as to why the Chinese government is collecting this data, but no public intelligence has proven it to be nefarious. While a third party collecting data is a heightened risk for users, banning an entire app via legislation causes massive legal hurdles while antagonizing a voter base.
170 million Americans, almost half the country, use TikTok as a mode of communication. When the bill was first passed, congressmen recall constituents flooding their office phones claiming the bill was an infringement on their First Amendment rights. The First Amendment constitutes a citizen's right to express, share, and access information with few limits, and citing “national security” as means of restricting an app nationwide will face strict scrutiny in courts. Many challenges to ban social media apps have failed, including three separate federal district court cases in 2020 when Trump aimed to ban TikTok. In fact, this would be the first time the ban of any social media app or website has prevailed.
Nonetheless, if the app meets a compelling government interest to meet a nationwide ban, Jeff Jackson and many other candidates could meet a particular problem at the polls, severing a novel but vital form of communication to voters. Beyond being another way to amplify candidates’ campaign messages, each social media channel is a mode to personalize how one will deliver this message. While Twitter is known for long-form thought pieces that are easily shareable, TikTok’s political videos are meant to be bite-size visual essays where a candidate is able to humanize themselves, prompting leaders to think,“What will get me on the ‘For You’ page?”
By prohibiting TikTok, candidates are effectively making their competition worse. In a world where every incumbent is sharing their dog on Instagram, the electorate might appreciate a new candidate who can explain what is happening on the Congress floor. With a vote to ban a beloved app of young people, a base that needs a push to vote every election, Rep. Jeff Jackson’s personalized style of communication might’ve been what got them to the polls.
While Jackson might be voting in the interest of national security, he might need to start looking for a new way to engage with his young voter base, the community that made him famous, in order to encourage voter turnout in November. Social media remains a largely accessible mode of communication among the young voter base, and if candidates ignore this base, they may encounter even greater challenges in securing electoral success.