What factors in the external environment led to Trump assessing TikTok as a threat to America? Describe each factor and how it influenced Trump’s decision. Be sure to label which part of the PESTELE model the factor belongs to. Hint 1, TikTok being owned by a Chinese company, Bytedance, is a big part of this. Hint 2, all factors in the PESTELE model except ecological factors are relevant to this case.
TikTok, a video-sharing social media mobile application owned by ByteDance Ltd., a Chinese company, was assessed as a threat to America by Trump and his administration. The following factors in the external environment influenced Trump’s administration’s decision:
Social: TikTok’s popularity among young Americans was seen as a potential threat to the national security of America. Trump mentioned that 175 million Americans had downloaded the app risking the personal information of the users, search history, and network activity information of the people of the United States. The Trump administration was concerned that the TikTok app could be used to collect private information, spread misinformation, spread propaganda, and most importantly the app could radicalize young Americans.
Economic: The Trump administration viewed TikTok as a threat to the US companies and the American economy because it believed that individual privacy and national security were compromised due to data collection practices ByteDance used through the TikTok mobile application.
Political: The Trump administration viewed the TikTok app and ByteDance company as a threat to the United States because of the high tension between the US and China due to the trade war and the ongoing tensions between the two nuclear powers. Trump viewed the TikTok app as a means for China to sneak into the information of the US residents. It also viewed the app as a potential tool for the Chinese government to collect data on US citizens and influence the 2020 US presidential election (Wang & Yang, 2020).
Technological: Trump was concerned that this app’s data collection practices could be utilized to develop facial recognition technology. The administration was also concerned that other advanced technological practices would be used for surveillance purposes.
All of these factors fall under the PESTLE’s economic, political, and social categories because the Trump administration’s decision to assess the TikTok app as a threat to Americans’ security was controversial and faced backlash and criticism from almost all quarters.
How does Oracle’s partial ownership of TikTok and agreement to host data of American TikTok users in the US satisfy Trump’s national security concerns? What opportunities and threats does this present for Oracle?
Oracle, a corporate technology company, partnered with TikTok to host data of American TikTok users. The agreement is meant to satisfy the Trump administration’s national security concerns and provoke a global data storage disturbance and breach. The deal is a more “politically motivated” intervention in the technological sector and was responsible for protecting user data from cybersecurity threats. Oracle aims to provide momentum to foreign governments to store data within their borders and that was exactly what the Trump administration wanted. However, the tech sector makes certain that this approach to data storage would degrade the app’s performance, create privacy risks, and impose compliance costs to both Oracle and ByteDance. Moreover, the biggest concern posed to Oracle is that TikTok is owned by Chinese ByteDance Ltd., which the Chinese government could exploit to conceivably access any data or information of the US citizens or American corporations held by the company. Oracle would have this opportunity that it does not share or transfer the US data to ByteDance and the company stores TikTok data for US users only to protect user data from cybersecurity threats.
How does Walmart’s partial ownership of TikTok represent a strategic opportunity for Walmart? What advice would have for Walmart on how to make the most of this opportunity?
Walmart, a partial owner of TikTok represents a strategic opportunity for the company to expand its reach among teens and youth of the United States among a distinctive demographic market. Walmart could use this minority stake that most of the US youth use this video-sharing app to open up avenues for a different geographical base (Tech Vision, 2020). As for advice, Walmart’s TikTok roadmap could leverage the app’s popularity to create engaging content in the form of videos. The content produced and showcased on TikTok shows the broad assortment of quality products and services in ways that engage the viewers and improve the perception of the brand or platform (The Wall Street Journal, 2020). Walmart could also use TikTok to create its own branded songs and create categories like beauty or clothing to be inspired to pull together a new look via tutorials from the influencers. To build relationships with its customers, Walmart could ask its employees to post their content on TikTok to receive monetary rewards while they are at work.
How does the Oracle, Walmart, and TikTok deal potentially impact US based tech companies such as Facebook and Google that also have generate their revenue from individual consumer data? (
The deal Oracle, TikTok, and Walmart partnered in has the potential and prospects to impact US-based tech companies such as Google and Facebook that generate their corporation’s revenue from individual consumer data. The deal allows Walmart to expand its reach in the e-commerce sector so that Walmart can compete with its rival business Amazon. It also allows Oracle to expand its cloud computing business across the globe. Moreover, the deal is expected to help the video-sharing app, TikTok, comply with the national security concerns of the United States so that the ban could be avoided in the country. There is a possibility that TikTok will become a competitor in the social media space and lead to increased competition for Google and Facebook. There is also a possibility that these platforms would not be impacted as their operations are different and they provide services in distinctive tech areas.
Do you agree that TikTok was a threat to America (prior to Oracle and Walmart becoming part owners)? Do you agree that Walmart and Oracle partial acquisition makes TikTok not a threat to America? There is no wrong answer here, just give justifications for your reasoning.
TikTok claims that the platform does not share or transfer data of individuals and companies to the Chinese government not for privacy breach or surveillance purposes. Prior to Walmart and Oracle’s partial partnership with TikTok, the platform aimed to serve the same purpose as it works now, sharing videos for fun and entertainment purposes. Despite Trump’s security concerns and banning the video-sharing app, TikTok was and is never a threat to a country’s national security. Even after Trump’s ban and the Biden administration’s review, it is difficult to say whether the partial acquisition of TikTok by Oracle and Walmart will make TikTok, a video-sharing app, a threat to the United States of America.
References
Tech Vision (Director). (2020, October 26). Why Does Walmart Want To Buy TikTok? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qtjxnUeAS9Q
The Wall Street Journal (Director). (2020, July 22). The Trouble With TikTok on U.S. Phones | WSJ. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fwRVasd-QPY
Wang, E., & Yang, Y. (2020, September 21). ByteDance, and Oracle at loggerheads over terms of TikTok agreement. Reuters. https://www.reuters.comarticle/idUSKCN26C021
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