A recent opinion poll shows that most American adults believe that China (the CCP) is using TikTok to influence public opinion in the United States. Currently, the US government is close to completing action to ban this short video sharing application owned by a Chinese company in the US.
According to Reuters, a two-day Reuters/Ipsos poll that ended on Tuesday (April 30th) revealed that about 58% of respondents agreed with the statement that the CCP government is using TikTok, owned by the Chinese company ByteDance, to “influence US public opinion”. Approximately 13% disagreed with this statement, while the rest either were unsure or did not answer the question. Among the respondents, Republicans were more likely than Democrats to believe that the CCP is using the app to influence public opinion in the US.
Last week, President Biden signed legislation giving ByteDance 270 days to divest TikTok’s US assets or face a ban. TikTok has vowed to challenge this ban, and its users are also expected to file lawsuits.
Despite having approximately 170 million users in the US, the joint poll by Reuters and Ipsos Group showed that 50% of Americans support banning TikTok, 32% oppose the ban, and the rest are uncertain. The poll only surveyed American adults and did not reflect the views of those under 18, a significant portion of TikTok users in the US. Approximately one-sixth of respondents aged 40 and above supported the ban, while about one-fourth of respondents aged 18-39 supported the ban.
The survey indicates that although the CCP government denies the accusation, 46% of Americans agree with the notion that the CCP is using TikTok to “monitor daily life in the US”.
This app is ubiquitous in the US, and even Biden’s reelection campaign team used it as a tool to reach voters before the presidential election on November 5th. Biden’s rival, former Republican President Trump, does not support the ban, but his campaign team did not join the TikTok platform.
Most Americans (about 60%) believe that it is inappropriate for US political candidates to use TikTok to promote their campaigns.
Biden signed a bill setting January 19 of next year as the deadline for ByteDance to sell TikTok, which is the day before his term ends. However, if he determines that ByteDance has made progress in divesting the app, he can extend the deadline by three months.
The online poll collected feedback from 1,022 American adults nationwide, with a margin of error of approximately plus or minus 3 percentage points.