Another country has issued a ban, Trump can't save TikTok

Author | Yi Xin@

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It is learned that on Wednesday, the Canadian federal government ordered TikTok to shut down its corporate operations in Canada on the grounds of national security.

Image source: foreign media

Currently, Canadian users can still use and access the TikTok app, but TikTok's operations in Toronto and Vancouver offices have been ordered to be gradually shut down.

Previously, the federal government banned the use of TikTok apps on all government workers' devices in February 2023, and launched a national security review of TikTok in September of the same year. The federal government stated that TikTok's activities in Canada may pose a threat to national security, and this move is the result of a comprehensive review to protect national interests.

In response, TikTok expressed strong opposition, saying that it has always complied with local data protection and privacy laws in Canada, and that closing its Canadian office will result in the loss of hundreds of local jobs, and it plans to take legal action.

The Canadian government issued the ban at the same time as the results of the US election came out and Trump won the next presidential election. Therefore, many people have questioned the ban. This year, Trump has publicly stated many times that he will not ban TikTok after taking office. However, Canada, which has always been close to the United States, announced the ban on TikTok's business at this time. What is the deep meaning behind it?

It is understood that as of April 2024, TikTok has 1.56 billion monthly active users worldwide, of which the United States has the largest number of users, about 170 million. According to The Information, ByteDance's international revenue (mainly TikTok) in the first half of 2024 increased by more than 60% to about US$17 billion.

TikTok's international commercialization territory is growing, but its road to expansion is full of resistance. For a long time, it has been regarded as a "potential threat" by many countries due to its large number of users and growing influence. The United States, the European Union, the United Kingdom, Indonesia and other places have issued "ban orders" against it.

In order to avoid being banned, TikTok has been at the forefront of deepening the localization process and lobbying overseas users. Since March this year, TikTok has sent push notifications on the platform, urging users to "stop shutting down TikTok" and spent $4.5 million in advertising fees to prevent the US ban.

It is reported that ByteDance plans to build R&D centers in Canada, Australia and other places this year, and will support the R&D of multiple overseas businesses such as TikTok, CapCut, and Lemon8 in the future. Just last month, an employee also broke the news that TikTok will vigorously recruit and develop its business in Canada.

Even though Canada is not a key market for TikTok, it is clearly a strategic setback for TikTok, which has been expanding globally. Forcibly shutting down local business will not only cause hundreds of local employees to lose their jobs, but will also threaten TikTok's user growth and advertising revenue, putting TikTok in a more difficult situation overseas.

It is worth mentioning that Trump previously declared that he would support TikTok after taking office as president, but he also tried to ban the app during his administration in 2020. Faced with Trump's wavering attitude, it is difficult to say whether he will abide by his promise after he officially takes office, so there are still many uncertainties about TikTok's fate in the United States.

Image source: TikTok

Some practitioners also believe that the ban issued by Canada this time sends a signal of support for the Trump administration, which means that Tik Tok is still facing a relatively large survival threat in Europe and the United States, and further increases the risk of encountering similar bans in other countries.

It is reported that the reasons why the Canadian government issued the ban this time are not much different from those of other countries. It also uses national sovereignty and data security as a "shield" to launch an indiscriminate attack on TikTok by imposing a total ban.

On the surface, it is to maintain national security, but in fact, such incidents often involve multiple factors such as politics, economy, and market competition. From the underlying logic, this is not only a game between Western politics and Chinese companies going overseas, but also a manifestation of the conflict between global expansion and local market interests.

Nowadays, with the popularity of social platforms, Western countries pay particular attention to data privacy and information security issues, and the supervision is becoming more and more stringent. Many countries have implemented strict reviews on foreign applications, especially platforms that have a large amount of user data. However, the reviews in some countries are often heavily "political" and use a "one-size-fits-all" approach to crack down on normal business activities.

Take TikTok as an example. Its social attributes not only provide users with rich content and interactive platforms, but its e-commerce business also brings economic value and employment opportunities to major markets.

The total ban proposed by many countries will not only harm the interests of local users and businesses, be detrimental to market innovation and healthy competition, but will also seriously hinder the process of globalization.

In the future, Chinese overseas companies and governments of various countries may continue to engage in a complex "game" between data privacy, national security and market competition.

In this game, the balance between the dividends of globalization and potential risks is becoming increasingly delicate, and each new regulatory policy is writing a new annotation for the international business order in the digital age.

Obviously, TikTok's road to global expansion is still full of challenges. For other Chinese companies that want to go overseas, in the face of an increasingly deteriorating regulatory environment and fierce market competition, they must not only put data security, compliance and transparency first, but also establish a high-risk awareness and be prepared for some changes.