Snap (Snapchat) CEO Evan Spiegel said banning TikTok would help his app, but he’s worried about the precedent of banning apps, even if they are foreign-owned national security risks.
A reporter asked Spiegel about his opinion on a potential TikTok ban this week at the Snap Partner Summit, Business Insider reported. “We’d love that. In the short term,” the Snap CEO replied. “In the short term, that is something that would help us out.”
Barely touching on TikTok‘s ties to the Chinese Communist government, Spiegel reportedly voiced concerns about the potential precedent of banning apps. “I think there are some big questions about what that would mean longer term, single out a single technology company, instead of developing a more comprehensive regulatory well,” Spiegel lectured.
“It is important for us to be thoughtful and really develop a regulatory framework to deal with security concerns, especially around technology,” Spiegel continued. “I think based on the information that is publicly available, there are legitimate national security concerns far above my pay grade.”
While Snap, formerly called Snapchat, is not owned by a Chinese company or the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), the app was caught pandering to the authoritarian government. Matthew Tye and Winston Sterzel, Youtubers and hosts of The China Show, reported in July 2022 that Taiwan’s version of Snap apparently used a CCP propaganda map laying claim to Taiwan. The same propaganda map did not appear for users in the United States. Snap is not legal in China, however.
While the Biden White House has recruited TikTok stars for its “Biden in the Basement 2.0” campaign, TikTok continues to cause security concerns. The Chinese Communist Party owns a board seat and maintains a financial stake in TikTok’s parent company ByteDance, and ByteDance employees can access the detailed data TikTok collects on users.
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