Analysis: The TikTok Debate in Taiwan and the U.S.
U.S. lawmakers are considering a bill that could effectively ban TikTok, while some of their counterparts in Taiwan are also expressing concerns over the social media company. To learn more about the debate around TikTok, TaiwanPlus spoke with the president of the Taiwan Law and Technology Association, Yachi Chiang.
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00:00 Lawmakers in Taiwan are raising concerns over security risks posed by the short video platform TikTok.
00:07 "The video is widely circulated on TikTok. It's a fake news. It's a serious harassment."
00:14 "It's not just a normal advertising platform. It's now also defined as a harmful product.
00:18 It's a product that foreign hostile forces can actually control."
00:23 The comments in the legislature come after a U.S. congressional committee passed a bill that could effectively ban the app.
00:30 TikTok has been accused of spreading disinformation ahead of Taiwan's recent election,
00:35 despite some candidates embracing it during their campaigns.
00:39 For more on the debate around TikTok,
00:42 reporter Chris Gorin spoke with the president of the Taiwan Law and Technology Association, Ya-Chi Chang.
00:49 What's the difference between the PRC app Douyin and the international version called TikTok?
00:54 And which one are most people in Taiwan using?
00:57 TikTok is the international version of Douyin.
01:02 So there are actually different apps.
01:05 And for the Taiwan users, I mean, I think naturally, I mean, legally, they will download the TikTok version.
01:13 But they can also use some ticks to circumvent the restrictions of the location rules and to download the Douyin version if they like.
01:23 There might be some differences about the content moderation rules,
01:27 because for the PRC version, the content moderation rules will be more stricter than the international version, supposedly.
01:35 I mean, I haven't done any research in the practice.
01:39 But that's according to the TikTok, they actually follow the rules and the legislations in the countries overseas.
01:48 So supposedly, they will have more freedom in terms of the content expression.
01:53 What is it exactly about TikTok that makes it more concerning than other social media platforms or apps?
02:00 Maybe some people argue that there are also other disinformation examples on other platforms.
02:06 Why we focus on TikTok?
02:09 Because first of all, the algorithm is not transparent.
02:13 And secondly, it has a very close connection with its parent company, ByteDance, which is located in China,
02:22 which is the company will be subject to all the legislations, all the requests from the CCP.
02:30 So that is very worrying.
02:33 And thirdly, apart from the misinformation cases, we also learned that the content moderation rules are not very transparent in the TikTok.
02:45 Is it fair to say then that the concerns are based more on the potential privacy and disinformation concerns that TikTok could pose,
02:54 rather than demonstrated examples that show it's more risky?
02:58 Yeah, maybe we can say that there's no concrete evidence yet to prove that.
03:03 What's the flip side of this coin? I mean, what risks are posed by having a ban on TikTok?
03:09 The first problem we will face is the freedom of speech, the most respected legal doctrine in a democratic system.
03:17 We are actually facing a very imbalanced war.
03:20 I mean, the authoritarian countries can use our freedom of speech to penetrate our democratic systems.
03:27 existence.