The world’s most popular gamer, Ninja, took to Twitter to inform the world that he’d deleted TikTok from all of his devices, due to security concerns about the Chinese app. His comments were immediately met with criticisms that other apps Ninja continues to use, like Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter, surreptitiously collect data and pose similar privacy threats. The conversation was a textbook example of the concept of American exceptionalism.
TikTok’s reputation for being an unsafe app that leaks user data to the Chinese government is well-earned, but also unproven. The company has been caught moderating content that criticizes Chinese political leadership in the past, and there’s also the issue of its terms of service explicitly saying “We will also share your information with any member or affiliate of our group, in China…” prior to February of 2019. At the same time, however, India has banned the app and the US government has made comments suggesting it will do the same, but both countries have implicitly and explicitly expressed interest in a ban simply to retaliate against China for other political reasons.
It’s not wholly inaccurate to say the US government and the Trump administration stand to benefit from convincing people that TikTok is unsafe. That’s a large part of why so many people responded negatively to Ninja’s tweet about uninstalling the app. Anti-China sentiment is on the rise in the US. Some of it developed naturally in the panic caused by the coronavirus pandemic. However, some of those concerns are being manufactured and exaggerated for political gain.
Whether his statements on Twitter came from an honest place or not, Ninja is an influential figure. His words could have perpetuated the hypocrisy of this situation and confirmed unrealistic biases. It’s also worth noting that Ninja was engaged in a conversation with an Anonymous Twitter account about the dangers of TikTok just minutes before announcing he’d deleted it. Furthermore, there’s the considerable irony that Ninja’s career is indelibly linked to Fortnite, a game published by Epic Games, 40% of which is owned by Tencent, one of the largest corporations in China (and the world).
Critics Point Out Facebook’s Security Issues
Those critical of Ninja’s anti-TikTok stance brought up the critical point in the debate of a possible US TikTok ban: there’s no real proof TikTok is any worse than American-made social media companies. Following Facebook’s infamous Cambridge Analytica scandal and its role in influencing the 2016 elections, its CEO is still willing to argue against being tougher on political ads. Google and Apple have had multiple issues involving leaking user data, unauthorized access to data on mobile devices, and, frankly, more security holes than anyone could ever fit into one article.
This all inspires the obvious question: why TikTok? With so many issues across all of social media, what is it that makes the potential risks of using TikTok so much worse? The US has multiple lawsuits against the company alleging it sends data to China, but the evidence has never been made public, despite these cases dating back to 2019. It’s unfortunate that most signs point to nationalism and racism as the primary drivers of the anti-TikTok movement, but considering how many American platforms are proven equally bad or worse, what conclusions are we left to draw?
