According to the latest CNBC All-America Economic Survey, nearly half of Americans are sufficiently concerned that TikTok poses a national security threat and support banning the social media service or forcing it to be sold to a non-Chinese company.
But the poll also found significant differences in opinion on the issue based on politics, age and those who use the app versus those who don’t.
The national survey of 1,001 Americans found that 20% of participants said TikTok should be banned no matter what. 27% said it should be banned unless it is sold to a non-Chinese company, meaning that in total, 47% of participants support a ban or sale.
Just over 3 in 10 respondents oppose a ban.
The poll was conducted March 15-19, just days after the House of Representatives overwhelmingly passed a bipartisan bill giving TikTok owner ByteDance about six months to opt out or face a prohibition. The Senate has not yet passed the bill.
ByteDance has launched a comprehensive strategy to mobilize US opposition against the ban. Tactics include testimonial videos featuring TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew. Protests even took place in front of the US Capitol.
More than 500,000 posts on the social media app use the hashtags #KeepTikTok or #SaveTikTok, and they largely consist of videos featuring users opposed to the ban.
The poll also found that younger Americans, in particular, do not support banning TikTok. While 31% of participants in the CNBC poll oppose a ban, that figure rises to 48% among the 18-to-34-year-old cohort. In the 65 and over category, only 11% are against blocking the application. Among survey participants who are also daily TikTok users, about two-thirds think the government should not ban the social media app.
“You’re taking away our First Amendment rights,” TikTok user Ophelia Nichols told CNBC in an interview. Known as “shoelover99” on the social media app, Nichols has more than 12.5 million followers.
“People don’t understand. It’s a community. It’s a family,” she added. “Whatever you like or what makes you smile, you’ll find someone else on the app who likes it too.”
Nichols, who creates lifestyle content and lives in Alabama, went to the Capitol when she heard about a possible ban. Nichols said TikTok did not ask him to join the protest.
Differences between political lines
Among survey participants, 40% of Democrats favored a ban or forced sale, while 38% opposed it. Meanwhile, 34% of independents favored a ban or sale, while 40% opposed it. Six in 10 Republican participants approved a ban or forced sale, even as former President Donald Trump, in a CNBC interview, opposed blocking the app.
The issue could be trickier for Democrats and President Joe Biden than for Republicans and Trump. Biden appears to be struggling to maintain his winning coalition. Plus, he already has problems with the youth vote, according to the survey.
In the CNBC poll, Biden’s overall approval is 39%, up 4 points from the previous poll and one point below the long-term average of his presidency. In contrast, it remained unchanged for voters aged 18 to 34, at 33 percent, 7 points lower than the long-term average for the group’s approval rating of the president.
TikTok is unlikely to be the deciding factor for many votes, but with the candidates in a virtual deadlock, it could play a peripheral role in a race where small margins can matter.
Additionally, TikTok supporters have an important platform on which they can express their discontent.
V Spehar, host of “Under the Desk News,” a short-form news show, has more than 3 million followers on TikTok and is worried about keeping them. “People say, ‘If we shut down TikTok, they’ll follow you on Meta,’ which is not true,” Spehar told CNBC. “And that’s not true for a lot of people. Otherwise, we would.”
Perhaps the best outcome from a policy perspective could be a transparent sale that users don’t notice.
However, this could only be the beginning of a series of issues that pit national security, as well as social and cultural concerns, against technological freedoms. At the same time, it pits the young against the old and the tech-savvy against those who are less so.
To view the full survey results, click here.
cnbc
