The debate on whether to ban TikTok is not about free speech

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BrusselsReport.eu
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By Zoltan Kesz, government affairs manager at the Consumer Choice Center and a former member of the Hungarian Parliament.

The intellectual debate among classical liberals on the necessary or unnecessary limits of free speech has been going on for quite a while. It is mostly accepted that liberal democracies must be the guardians of free speech and help other countries achieve the same end. However, a new, 21st-century version of liberal democracy entails admitting that when one has authoritarian regimes to counter, one must have security measures to defend our democracies against totalitarian countries.

We at the Consumer Choice Center believe in free speech and tech innovation and in being free from surveillance from rogue regimes. Free trade with private companies is also vital to world trade. Still, when it comes to the Chinese communist regime owning a part of a company, it worries us to see that our liberal democracies may be harmed by the possibility of European consumers’ devices being spied on.

Obviously, I am referring to the popular social media platform TikTok here. Due to national security concerns, governments in North America are taking serious steps against the Chinese app. In the USA, it has been banned by the federal government for their employees on work-related devices, and also some universities have followed suit. Canadian authorities are equally considering a similar ban for the very same security reasons. Should the European Union do the same? If it intends to ensure the security and privacy of its citizens, liberal democracies in the EU cannot deny this new reality of the 21st century.

CCP surveillance

The Chinese Communist Party running China has a track record of mass surveillance and human rights violations through its other high-tech ventures like the Huawei 5G network, Hikvision, Dahua, and TikTok, among others. Since half of the population in the EU has already downloaded the app, it is becoming a serious concern that the data users share can be abused and end up in the wrong hands. It is not necessarily the content that concerns us, but the fact that the Chinese Communist Party is involved in the company. In the past decade, they have made considerable investments in artificial intelligence, which they have used for mass surveillance.

We at Consumer Choice Center firmly believe it is time for the EU to step up its measures regarding TikTok before it is too late. We must make sure that in the dialogue about the differences between liberal and illiberal democracies, the free world understands how to deal with technologies developed and controlled by totalitarian regimes, hoping we can avoid severe security issues that will harm us in the long run.

Therefore, we believe that the EU must consider innovative policies to counter TikTok’s influence within our institutions. It may be just a modest step, but in the end, we must favor technologies that help empower consumers and citizens, rather than subject them to the evil influence of a totalitarian regime.

 

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