Declining support for banning TikTok
Politicians in the US and the European Union have tried to stop Chinese-owned TikTok but public support, at least in the US, for a TikTok ban is low and it continues to decline. Many US adults are sceptical or unsure if such a ban will happen, according to a new Pew Research Centre survey. The European Parliament has earlier adopted recommendations to ban TikTok at all levels of national government and in the EU institutions. US administrations under both Donald Trump and Joe Biden have insisted that TikTok US operations are sold to US-owners or banned (thou Trump has later changed his mind).
TikTok has a growing importance as a source for news also now prior to the US presidential election in early November, according to Pew Research survey.
As voters are on TikTok, both Kamala Harris and Donald Trump are also there. TikTok is available in over 150 countries, has over 1 billion users, and says it has 150 million monthly active users in the US.
The EU Commission, Western governments and companies have instructed staff to delete the TikTok app from their business phones.
The background is concern expressed by security people that the Chinese-owned TikTok could collect sensitive data that could be passed on to the Chinese authorities. FBI has said that TikTok’s privacy and data collection policies could allow for the capture of sensitive personally identifiable information and that data could be accessed by the Chinese government.
The European Council and the Commission should exclude the use of equipment and software from manufacturers from high-risk countries, particularly China and Russia, such as ByteDance Huawei, ZTE, Kaspersky, NtechLab or Nuctech, the European Parliament recommended by adopting a report from a parliament special committee on foreign interference. The report was adopted by 469 votes for, 71 against and 75 abstentions.
The share of Americans who support the US government banning TikTok now stands at 32%. That’s down from 38% in fall 2023 and 50% in March 2023.
Meanwhile, 28% of Americans oppose a ban, up from 22% in March 2023. And the share who say they are uncertain whether the government should ban the platform has risen from 28% in March 2023 to 39% now, the Pew Research survey shows.
The survey notes that these findings come as TikTok’s fate in the United States continues to be uncertain.
President Joe Biden signed a bill in April that requires ByteDance, the Chinese company that owns TikTok, to sell it or face a ban in the US Challenges to this law are now headed to the courts.
Even amid the decline in support for banning TikTok, views remain divided by political party.
Republicans and Republican-leaning independents are far more likely than Democrats and Democratic leaners to support a ban (42% vs. 24%).
“Still, support for a ban has dropped substantially within each party. In March 2023, 60% of Republicans and 43% of Democrats said they supported the government banning TikTok”, the Pew says.
Half of Americans think it’s very or somewhat unlikely that TikTok will be banned in the US. By contrast, 31% say a ban is at least somewhat likely, including 6% who believe it is very likely.
Another 19% say they are unsure whether TikTok will be banned.
Overall, TikTok users are roughly twice as likely to think TikTok is mostly good for American democracy as they are to think it’s mostly bad (33% vs. 17%). But the largest share of users (49%) think it has no impact on democracy, a previous survey from Pew Research Centre shows.
“TikTok has increasingly become a destination for news, bucking trends on other social media sites”, the Pew says.
A survey by the Centre shows more Americans – and especially young Americans – regularly get news on the platform compared with a few years ago.
About half of those under 30 say getting news is a major or minor reason they use TikTok, a survey by the Centre shows.
For 48% of TikTok users ages 18 to 29, keeping up with politics is a major or minor reason why they’re on the platform. 36% of those ages 30 to 49 and smaller shares of older users say the same.
That compares with 41% of TikTok users ages 30 to 49 who say getting news is a reason they’re on it. The shares of older users saying so are smaller.
Nearly half of all TikTok users (45%) say they see at least some content about politics or political issues on the platform. That includes 6% of users who say political content is all or most of what they see.
Half of users under 30 say they see at least some political content on TikTok. That’s higher than the 39% of those 50 and older who say the same.
But that they read about politics on TikTok does not mean that they share or contribute political content.
Only 7% of users ages 18 to 29 and 8% of users aged 30 to 64 post at least some political content there.
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