Banning Tik Tok, the duality of the American policy on media freedom

Mr. Mohammad Elmia, researcher of cyber space and social networks, and Sina Tafangchi, cyber space expert, and Ms. Fatemeh Rahnama, reporter of cyberspace field of Sada and Vasima news agency, examined the issue of the termination of the social network “Tik Tok” in America in a special news discussion program.

The members of the US House of Representatives approved a bill with 352 votes in favor and 65 votes against, according to which the parent company of Tik Tok, due to having Chinese shareholders, has 165 days to hand over the ownership of Tik Tok or it will be blocked in the United States. 197 of the votes in favor belong to the Republicans and of course the other 155 votes belong to the Democrats, which can be said to be one of the few bills on which there is a significant consensus between the representatives of the two American parties.

Question: What is the difference between banning the use of TikTok in America compared to previous bans?

Guide: Over the past year or two, the audience may have heard different news about the banning of the use of Tik Tok in the United States or the passing of a law related to this issue. The developments that have happened in relation to the governance of Tik Tok as a social network that has foreign shareholders and operates in the United States can be divided into several categories. In the past year, the news that the audience has heard about Tik Tok in the United States has been divided into meetings. The hearings of the American Congress are coming back, the hearings are meetings that are a place for expert discussions and challenging discussions, for example, the CEO of a platform like Tik Tok is invited and they have arguments. The hearing is the space for expert discussions and the challenge that results from these discussions is a kind of bill or draft bill that is examined in the subcommittees of the House of Representatives or the US Senate, so some of these news are also related to the decisions of the subcommittees or some of these news are related to subject to prohibitions based on US state laws. In America, apart from the laws that are passed at the national level, there are also a series of state laws that the governor of a state announces a decision for his state, for example, the state of Montana was one of the leading states in banning Tik Tok for normal users and users who necessarily It was not the government employees that if mobile stores allow American users to download Tik Tok software from the beginning of January this year, they will be fined a heavy amount (about 10 thousand dollars) for each download. Now what happened today is that the result of those discussions The expert hearings, the results of the investigations of the sub-committees of the American parliaments came to the floor of the American House of Representatives, which is one of the main legislative issues, and the first official stage of dealing with this social network in the American laws has been established, two more stages are left for a decision in this area. One of them is approval in the Senate and the other is the signing of this bill by the President of the United States.

Question: What is the difference between the approval of the TikTok ban bill in the House of Representatives and what we saw sporadically?

Alamiya: We are talking about an application that is definitely a completely Chinese platform and has become a hot topic in the world, almost one eighth of the world’s population is using it, the number of monthly active users of this platform And the platform has about 170 million monthly users, we don’t have anything similar to this anymore, that is, if we want to compare with Instagram and YouTube, we see that they have a much lower number than this. TikTok’s content is based on videos that people share and watch, and after a while it generates revenue and has an algorithm that makes it more visible and encourages users to want to see it.

Question: Is Tik Tok entertainment?

Alamiya: Tik Tok is designed and produced for the purpose of entertainment, but one of the issues that was discussed in the same impeachment hearing, I will say the impeachment hearing, I will not put another name on it, in that impeachment hearing, one of the issues that They strongly emphasized on the issue of culturalization of this platform. Very clearly and without compliments, we see the United States of America saying that freedom of speech and political and economic differences in this country have always been very clear and they did not hide them, but they reached a consensus on this matter and within a year they started a process with a culture. Sazi, with an advertisement and reached the point where Tik Tok is being banned in America, and there is no such history. Until today, a platform with more than 10,000 users has not been banned in America, this is a very important point, that is, today. America is banning one of the biggest platforms in the world, which is one of the most popular in America itself.

One of the reasons for banning Tik Tok is disclosure about Gaza

Question: Why is Tiktok, which is a video-based social network with an entertainment aspect, becoming an important security issue for American government officials?

Fengchi: I would like to correct one point, the 170 million people who said that the population of Tik Tok users is in America, not in the world, and the next point is that now the reason why it is banned and the reason why now They are looking to ban it. The issue of selling and transferring the data of American users by Tik Tok outside this environment. The most important argument they have is that they say that from the beginning, when the Gaza war started, too much content is shown to American users that is related to the Palestinians and they want to influence them, and another argument is that I discussed the transfer of location-based data.

Question: Has this issue been followed before for other reasons?

Tangchi: Previously, they came to about 25 US states and banned Tik Tok for students. The argument is that this application had a lot of vulgar and abnormal content and was unable to manage itself. American users are also referring to it, and now a lot of criticism has been made regarding this decision, many users have said that it is against the freedom of expression in social media.

Question: What is the reason why a video-based social network becomes an important security issue?

Alamiya: I would like to correct and clarify one point, I said that we have 170 million monthly users, which our dear friend criticized, see how many concepts we have, a number of user registers Done, a number of users who enter a platform register, the number of monthly active users, the number of weekly active users and the number of daily active users, what does this mean? For example, in Tik Tok, if I say that there are 170 million monthly users, it means that they come to Tik Tok once a month. What is the number of people who have installed it? They come to Tik Tok on a weekly basis, it will probably be around 110-120 million a week, and it is usually less daily, probably 50-60 million, and the exact statistics have not been announced. This first point, see, we are not complaining, let’s consider the same 170 million monthly users, see, the number is not a small number, it is a very large number. Maybe if we had said a year ago that America is sensitive about the governance of its cyber space, maybe no one would have accepted it, or if 20 people had accepted it, probably 10 people would have disagreed. America is the user who chooses what content to access and how to use it. America wants to have the sovereignty of cyber space with itself, the government does not make a decision that you see this and you don’t see this and until today everyone thought this way, last year when this happened and they started this circus and this investigation session started in the Senate. What happened was that we saw that all the things that say these are the user’s rights are violating them and got into issues in the form of maintaining the security of information, protecting the privacy of users, so the reality is that the content layer If we want to say that America is sensitive to vulgar and obscene content, so it has come and put its hands on it. Well, its own platforms are not short of these things. The democrats and about 160 republicans came unanimously and agreed that it should be blocked and banned from being used in America.

Question: The governance of cyberspace has been questioned by the US government in the Senate?

Guide: First, I would like to say something that what was approved today was approved in the House of Representatives and the next step will be approval or voting in the Senate, but I am looking at the discussion of respected experts, which I think was their answer. To your question why Tik Tok has become a national security issue in the United States, it might not be a bad idea to refer to the positions of the American representatives themselves, a few days ago when this bill, which was approved today in the House of Representatives, was discussed in a subcommittee called the Trade Committee. and the energy of the American House was voted and all the members of that committee voted for the initial draft of the bill. One of these representatives, who was the chairman of the China Affairs Committee of the US House of Representatives, the CNN anchor asked that we have 170 million American users, they like this application, why are we making such a decision, the representative’s clear answer was this, he said because this The social network has a foreign parent company, and this issue of the widely used American platform is not something that we are willing to hand over to a foreign company, namely a Chinese one. It should not be a foreign company.

Question: So we can conclude that what you are referring to now became more prominent with the Gaza war and the access of American users to Palestinian and Gaza content, but before that it was also discussed in America for the same reasons that you mention. Guide: We can say that there is a big argument, and that is not handing over a significant part of public opinion to a company that has foreign shareholders is the main issue, but besides that, there may be other sub-issues. The word is that there are algorithms that show content that the American government does not like, and other things can be brought up under that big issue. It is not entirely Chinese, that is, Tik Tok himself explained with a document that yes, the original founder was Chinese, but now 60% of it is owned by 3 international companies, all three of which are located in America, and 20% of it is owned by the employees of Byte Dance Company. who have different nationalities and only 20% of this company is owned by a Chinese founder and that person is a person from the private sector and not a government person.

Question: Mr. Tafangchi pointed out a point, the positions of the American authorities towards Tik Tok, the American authorities have raised the facts about the abuse of the data of American users. How is this information? they said. I would also like to tell you one thing. They also said several times that this is the first stage. Finally, because many Tik Tok users protested and different tendencies said that we want to use this application, in the end it is possible to work with If the Supreme Court decides to violate Reich at all, I would like to inform you that there is a possibility that they will not be enforced. Another thing that exists is the prescription points that Ms. Rahnama also mentioned. The people who say this are the same people who protest quickly in other countries if an application is restricted or blocked. From everything that is happening in it, you are blocking the freedom of speech in social media and there is complete opposition to this decision of the policy makers. He announced some time ago that it can become a big risk for us, there is a problem that should be addressed separately in terms of policy making, data-oriented governance, and cyber governance. For others, we like to be liked.

Question: Do you want me to ask Mr. Elmia’s opinion about this point, why does an issue in cyberspace become a point of commonality between Republicans and Democrats?

Alamiya: Again, the problem is very simple, there is no doubt about it, the governance of cyberspace and governance in cyberspace is now more important in the world than the bottom of the society. Those questions that were asked in that investigation meeting, the meeting was 5 hours, friends, search on the internet and see the pieces very quickly, they say that you cause the thoughts of our youth to deviate, this deviation is not only a moral deviation, it is a political deviation, it is a complete social deviation. They direct you to see the impact of virtual space and maybe these things and issues that you mention are more important to them than what is discussed in the field of ethics and culture in this country. They said that all the people who are actually taking a stand against these politicians who are acting, it has been mentioned many times that they have said that this is a political theater, that is, they say that the circus is right. They are just starting a game in the name of Sir, we want to manage the cultural apparatus, and in fact there is data coming out, they want to apply their own limiting rules.

Question: I will take your opinion, Ms. Rahnama, if we want to review the news, because you are constantly reviewing these news at the virtual space table, reporting and producing news content in Sada and Sima news agency about the discussion we had and Mr. Elmia mentioned it, how is our news documentation?

Guide: First, I would be grateful if you could ask your question more clearly.

Question: Regarding the point they stated that it is probably a political approach and they borrow from these moral issues and cyber space for these issues? We are witnessing a special kind of media treatment in such media, including, for example, we see that American mothers with their children who have been harmed from being on some of these platforms, including Tik Tok, are present at these hearings. and they raise the pictures of their children facing these cameras to say that my child is a victim of being on this social platform. This is a scene that may affect many American users and perhaps the American audience and convince them to accept that yes, if you have Regarding the activity of this platform, you are right, but there is another layer of this story that can be analyzed, that is, for example, in the field of media positions, in fact, the American media, if we analyze this issue, we will see that they invite different representatives. In the conversation and discussion, some of these representatives say things that are different from those special media programs, such as the story of the hearings, for example, the representatives now, because I don’t have the presence of mind right now, but with these key words, if the audience can find them, sometimes the representatives come. They use keywords like national security to say that the data of our users can be seen by a company that has a foreign shareholder. It is observed, well, this matter has a political meaning, this story of being worried that our public opinion is seen by a foreigner or a company with foreign shareholders, or makes an estimate or result from it, this matter has a more political meaning than be a culture and the other issue that I mentioned is a clear reference to why a foreign company or a company with foreign shareholders should actually own a high-profile platform. In its place, but there are a series of security and political concerns that are sometimes mentioned more openly in the positions of American representatives or the American media.

Question: Mr. Elmia, the claims made by the American authorities about Tik Tok do not apply to America’s own social networks, now according to the points that Ms. Rahnama mentioned?
Almia: Let’s see which part of their claims. If it’s about protecting security and privacy, let’s say they want to bring this excuse, well, in the same hearing and impeachment, the CEO of Tik Tok said very clearly that I brought all the databases to the United States, all the personnel of that department and security, who are all Americans themselves. There are, that is, a Chinese person, we are not allowed to work there unless there is a side effect, so there is no excuse, the rest of the information is in your own hands, so the problem should have been solved, if the problem was the privacy of the information security, but we see that no, this problem was not solved. What is the inverter layer? We are saying that everyone should know this fact and that all dear viewers should pay attention to this issue. When you and I install an application, regardless of whether it is Iranian, American or European, we give access to the information on our phones. We have and the interactions we have with people in the virtual space, this is a part of the story, a part of the information and content that we are seeing is completely engineered today. It is very simple. I would like to give an example. Search for two cat food sites enter three to three store sites. Now Iranian sites are exactly examples of this Iranian site that sell different products and are so -called marketplace and online store. The same car model suggests that in apps like Instagram like YouTube like Tik Tak this is a serious and extremely highly identified your taste and your taste and starts with your taste and interest in you. They show that so that we call it to be involved, the user and the user are more likely to be used instead of staying in a program for 2 minutes; As well as very important, our statesmen also learn from these MPs that we do not have a law in this area if there is a broken filtering that is more dissatisfied than it is efficient. We see that we have no law to sit down once to adopt a law that if it has a foreign platform it works in Iran, what should we need to work. Communications have come up with rules for the presence of wireless internet in Iran and said if you want to work, let’s work with these rules, but now let’s see, so this social engineering and thought engineering is completely happening and we are confronted with America and even Europe. The EU is also aware that we have been involved in two laws for a year DSA and DMA Digital If a company wants to work in the European Union again, it should be and shouldn’t. Is placed

Governments now pay special attention to the issue of sovereignty and cyberspace

That YouTube has forced to make changes is that Apple, as a manufacturer of a handset, has now been forced to allow users to use applications and applications other than AppStore, so it comes back to it. Look, governments are now paying special attention to the issue of sovereignty and cyberspace. /p>

Question: Mr. Groupchi This US decision we are now talking about that a part of the House of Representatives today think you think that the United States has always claimed to be like the principles of equitable competition for market economics.
Group: I first give an explanation about your reporter’s talk that the story of political and cultural ban was told. This story is your service. It was a cultural root, which was a cultural discussion of many countries because The challenges that were held at Tik Taks The violence discussions of sexual abnormalities first came to discuss the layout of the ban.

Question: One point now I am borrowing from Mr. Seminary’s talk, isn’t these in their social companies? India also raised the issue of transferring users outside the borders of Indian servers, and they continued to find this challenge to say in fact that a number of countries would not be used in the government apparatus. Like the European Union of Australia New Zealand, Britain, they banned them. What was the reason that they were saying that you were creating a cultural restriction, because through this ticking, many of the different talents and stars, especially in the music and cultural fields, can be extracted from this and we find a lot of genius. It was an excuse now that, in fact, those academics were actually protested.

Question: Roots or excuses?
Gunchi: Anyway, it was the root that I served you. Why, because they say that the point is that if ticking is banned, its most important benefit is for Meta Instagram and Google YouTube because it can have its users more and that more competitive discussion, which is actually, despite being more competitive. Tik Tak was a competitive atmosphere. The move has been moving from year 5 to the content that somehow was in contact with it, or you liked it, or you have searched a few times or your joint friends are now discussing your social network search engine searches for your search engine searches. You have come to her a few times when you are now looking for a content to show you the same things that have been in your mind. Why are there, and notice, I don’t want to defend them at all. I just want to explain. One explanation is that there are various discussions about observations from the time before Corona at different times before Corona Children and adolescents are mostly worried about all countries and have tried to hint after other platforms attempted to use the adult content of the adult content slightly to the younger people.

Question: Mr. Seminary about what Mr. Groupchi pointed out? They left and left or outsourced to an American company says the US is saying that if you want to work in the US, it has to be transferred to the American company.

Question: First I ask a question that the owners of the Tik Thak agree to his transfer? Hand up to lose the market to lose a fifth that will not lose, as we use many apps in Iran that we should not use in the United States. To use this is a very important point to consider and analyze why he says what to do with the American company what happens to this assignment. What happened to the American Database American Database American Database. Everything is there. What doesn’t exist.

Anything they don’t like can be quickly restricted or blocked

What happens in the transfer of senior management and strategy See today if I am going to give a simple example they come on Instagram to manage a chaos to disrupt the social order. Qasim let your account quickly clean or your account is suspended there can be anything they do not like to restrict or block quickly, but today in the case of ticking the US can do so. The questions they asked were that in some cases we asked you to delete content and you delayed it why it took a few hours to see this dual behavior this contradiction in the behavior if well managed and quickly eliminated. So why reports and reports somewhere that the user comes and reports that nothing happens on Instagram and Facebook, but here you expect an international company operating in the US as soon as you do not like this, we don’t like to delete you. Let me also say my end to see again I do not repeat the world on the mental security of their people and the issue of rigid cyberspace and do not allow their people to be harmed. Story.

In the European Union they also decided not to allow the rule of the platforms

The world will inevitably go to all countries.
The Gunmani: Another point that was right today is another issue that was raised in the same rule in the United States was the discussion of artificial intelligence, which emphasizes the same thing.