Amna Nawaz:
So, could this be the beginning of the end for TikTok in the U.S.? And can the U.S. government’s concerns about the app be mitigated?
Matt Perault was a public policy official at Facebook before becoming a professor at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, and the director of its Center on Technology Policy.
And a quick note: The center is funded by foundations and tech companies such as Google, Apple and our subject now, TikTok.
But, Matt Perault, welcome to the “NewsHour.”
Let’s just start with what Nick was just reporting there. TikTok had been negotiating with the U.S. government for years, already agreed to a number of requests laid out by the U.S. government. What changed that led the Biden administration to reportedly harden their stance and issue this ultimatum that the ByteDance CEO says he received?
Matt Perault, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill: It’s not exactly clear what changed. And it’s not clear if what changed is more substantive, meaning that it’s related to actual harm related to TikTok or risk that TikTok poses to the United States or political, a change in how the parties perceived risk related to being perceived as being soft on China.
I think it’s probably more likely that it was political, in that I think it is still unclear, as you suggested, exactly what about Project Texas and the rumored CFIUS agreement with TikTok was insufficient, from the U.S. government’s perspective.
