Meta’s Nick Clegg invokes anti-China rhetoric against TikTok

“TikTok, a hugely successful, highly dynamic and innovative Chinese company, is able to operate in the United States, but companies like Meta are not able to operate our social media services in China,” Clegg said in an interview Tuesday with Bloomberg TV. “So there is this issue of a kind of lack of a level playing field. And in the end, there’s always an underlying issue of values: What values are the underpinning of new technologies?”

TikTok, owned by Chinese tech giant ByteDance Ltd., has said it’s not a Chinese company and is walling off sensitive US operations to house all data and employees in America. The app also isn’t available in China. Still, it hasn’t been able to shake concerns about its ownership and whether that opens up the app for influence or data collection by the Chinese government.

Clegg’s comments echo the hawkish sentiments that have swirled around China and TikTok’s connection to the country. In the US, where the social media platform has amassed 150 million users every month, the company is facing a national security review and legislation that could limit its availability in the country.

There are “pretty profound differences in values” in how China views technology and individual privacy, Clegg said, including the country’s willingness to seal off most of its internet from access by foreign companies. This has also expanded to discussions about new artificial intelligence technologies where, he said, “Chinese authorities are already rushing to insert their values and the way in which those AI systems are developed.”

“It’s so important that Europe, America, India don’t need to act in an identical fashion,” Clegg said. “But if they can align, then we can ensure that these new technologies are based on democratic values and not all autocratic values, because I can guarantee you these very powerful new technologies are going to be used by autocrats around the world for their own purposes — and I think we need to do something quite different.”

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India has already banned TikTok within its borders.TikTok Has Option to Fight Back as US Weighs Ban or Forced Sale

A TikTok ban in the US would be convenient for Meta, which has copied the app’s core feature of an endless stream of short-form video based on a user’s interests. TikTokers spend more time on the app than on any of its competitors, clocking an average of 95 minutes a day, according to Sensor Tower. That’s almost double the 51 and 49 minutes spent on Meta’s Instagram and Facebook, respectively.

Meta has taken swings against TikTok in the past. Last year, the Washington Post reported that the company paid Republican consulting firm Targeted Victory to malign TikTok in op-eds and letters sent to newspapers across the US, calling TikTok a threat to young people’s well-being. Absent from the communications was any mention of Meta’s Reels, a feed of vertical videos that’s similar to what TikTok offers.

And lawmakers and users have often railed against Meta’s values, saying the company prioritizes profit over the mental health and data privacy of people using its technologies, and has failed to stop influence campaigns on its platform. Over the last half-decade, executives have been called into a string of congressional hearings, as recently as last fall.