The Ministry of Digital Affairs on Dec. 5 last year listed TikTok and Douyin, the Chinese version of the video sharing app, as products “that endanger national cybersecurity.” The ministry also announced restrictions on the use of the apps on government devices and on the premises of government agencies.
This raises the question of whether TikTok and Douyin should also be banned on school campuses. The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), which has posted on TikTok as part of election campaigns, said such restrictions amount to “speech control,” and KMT Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) said that not everything should be about ideology.
Many young people also think that looming regulations on the apps are a matter of freedom and civil rights. They say there is no need for government interference and that they should be allowed to judge for themselves.
Due to its proximity to China, Taiwan faces a greater military threat from Beijing than any other nation.
However, many Taiwanese, who have become accustomed to living in freedom, do not think about needing to be prepared for danger in times of peace.
While an opinion poll showed that 60 percent of the US public are in favor of a full-scale TikTok ban and Japan is planning to implement a “security investigation” mechanism to restrict suspicious Chinese apps, including TikTok, many Taiwanese are happy to sit in the front row of China’s misinformation campaigns without worrying in the slightest.
FBI Director Christopher Wray has said that TikTok gives rise to “national security concerns.”
While TikTok is not available in China, Douyin has been called the app’s “spinach version,” as it is educational and offers limited services. Chinese children under the age of 14 are only allowed to use the app for 40 minutes a day, and can only watch “patriotic” or educational videos dealing with topics such as science experiments and museum exhibitions. TikTok, aimed at the rest of the world, is an addictive “opium version” that keeps children hooked for hours at a time.
Wray also said that Chinese companies have to do whatever Beijing tells them to do, potentially turning them into tools of the Chinese government.
This is worrying enough in itself.
Even before the US took notice, the Indian government in June 2020 temporarily banned TikTok on national security grounds. It did so because TikTok was suspected of stealing information from users’ devices without their knowledge, possibly including confidential data such as passwords, credit card information and sensitive e-mails.
Should TikTok be banned on school campuses? Do young people have sufficient ability to distinguish between true and false information? Has Taiwan underestimated the lengths to which China will go to infiltrate its society, eventually leading Taiwanese into the trap of its pro-unification influence operations and brainwashing?
While governments around the world are doing their best to prevent Chinese infiltration through TikTok, Taiwanese, who are threatened by China every day and are close to the brink of war, do not take this issue seriously enough and even think that the government is too nosey.
Meanwhile, certain political parties have the habit of speaking up for China. Taiwan has for nine consecutive years ranked first in the world for disinformation attacks.
Given this unenviable position, Taiwanese should take this national security issue more seriously.
Lin Han is a junior-high school teacher.
Translated by Julian Clegg
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