SIGNALS

East Asia Forum, Georgetown Journal of International Affairs

The national security and ideological concerns behind the decision to force a sale or ban TikTok “obscure” the app’s role as “both a catalyst and a metaphor” for the tech rivalry between the US and China, analysts wrote for East Asia Forum, an Australian think tank. A US ban could send a warning to other Chinese companies operating in the country, and “deepen the tech divide” between the two nations, they wrote. A potential ban could carry hidden risks, however, a Center for Strategic International Studies researcher warned: Ideological concerns among some US lawmakers risks echoing China’s “Great Firewall” censorship policy, which, in turn, risk disrupting global commerce and information flows.

Bloomberg, BBC

As a staunch ally of Donald Trump, Elon Musk could prove pivotal to TikTok’s survival: He has disavowed the US ban, and has a history of doing business in China through his EV company, Tesla. The world’s richest man may be constrained by budget, however: Musk is still paying off his Twitter purchase, and TikTok would present an estimated further expense of between $40-$50 billion, Bloomberg noted. Another consideration for Musk is the fact that US TikTokers are already migrating to other apps, including Chinese rival Xiaohongshu, which on Monday was the most downloaded app on Apple’s US App Store, the BBC reported. Combining TikTok’s US operations with Musk’s X platform could boost the latter’s ad sales, however, and its vast library of content would help bolster his AI ambitions.