The Washington Post-Ramaswamy spars with Haley over TikTok at Republican debate
September 28, 2023 3 min 516 words
这篇报道反映了美国共和党内关于TikTok的激烈争论，而前南卡罗来纳州长尼基·哈雷和共和党总统候选人维韦克·拉马斯瓦米之间的交锋更是折射了这一争论的焦点。哈雷谴责了拉马斯瓦米在TikTok上发布的社交媒体内容，将其称为“令人恼火”，并表达了对这一有争议的社交媒体应用的担忧。 这次争论突显了政治家们面临的困境，特别是共和党内。TikTok为政治家们提供了一个重要的在线宣传工具，用来接触千禧一代和Z一代选民。但TikTok由中国字节跳动公司拥有，这引发了一系列关于中国竞争威胁的国家安全担忧，因此政治家们对是否继续使用这个受欢迎的应用程序的辩论变得日益谨慎。 随着2024年选举临近，政治家们面临了一个TikTok的悖论。如果他们加入这个被数百万美国人使用的应用程序，他们可能会被视为在中国问题上软弱，因为关于是否禁止这一流行应用程序的辩论在华盛顿继续进行中。 一些州已经禁止政府设备上使用TikTok，而字节跳动公司和美国政府在激烈争论后重新坐到了谈判桌前，讨论该应用在美国的未来。TikTok一再否认政治家们的说法，即它从美国用户那里收集的数据被中国政府窃取，而政府官员也没有提供太多关于该应用有害的证据。 哈雷称TikTok是“最危险的社交媒体应用之一”，声称TikTok可以访问用户的联系人、财务信息、电子邮件和短信，但目前没有证据支持这一说法。《华盛顿邮报》的一项审查发现，与TikTok相比，Facebook和其他美国制作的应用程序收集了同样多的数据，甚至更多。 拉马斯瓦米则辩护自己加入TikTok的决定是政治上的明智之举，强调需要赢得选举，并且要在年轻美国人中建立联系。然而，尽管他在TikTok上积极推进，但他一再表示，16岁以下的儿童不应该使用“令人上瘾的社交媒体”。 在辩论中，主持人还追问佛罗里达州州长罗恩·德桑特斯是否对美国科技公司持批评立场会使中国获得优势。“我们并不是说你不想做生意，但你希望它是一个自由市场，而现在它们垄断了市场，”德桑特斯回应，反对主持人的观点。 总之，这篇报道反映了TikTok在美国政治中的分歧和争议，以及政治家们在如何利用这一平台与中国竞争威胁之间的困境。这也突显了社交媒体和国家安全之间的复杂互动。
2023-09-28T03:32:12.990Z
For the past two weeks, Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy has been courting young voters on TikTok — posting videos that show “a day in the life” on the campaign trail and dancing with internet provocateur Jake Paul.
At Wednesday night’s Republican presidential debate, former United Nations ambassador Nikki Haley denounced his social media stunts as “infuriating,” during a heated exchange that highlighted divisions within the GOP over the controversial social media app.
“TikTok is one of the most dangerous social media assets that we could have,” Haley said. “Every time I hear you, I feel a little bit dumber for what you say.”
The fight highlighted a growing dilemma for politicians — especially within the Republican Party. TikTok offers one of the most potent online megaphones for politicians to reach millennial and Gen Z voters. But it is owned by Beijing-based ByteDance, raising a host of national security concerns as politicians become increasingly wary of the competitive threat posed by China.
As the 2024 election draws closer, politicians are facing a TikTok paradox. If they join the app that is used by millions of Americans, they risk appearing weak on China as the debate about whether to ban the popular app continues in Washington.
Several states have banned TikTok on government devices, and ByteDance and the U.S. government are back at the negotiating table after a contentious debate over the app’s future in the United States. TikTok has repeatedly dismissed politicians’ claims that the data it collects from U.S. users is siphoned by the Chinese government, and government officials have provided little evidence of the app’s harm.
Calling it “one of the most dangerous social media apps there is,” Haley said TikTok can access users’ contacts, financial information, emails and text messages, but there is no proof for that. A review by The Washington Post found Facebook and other U.S.-made apps gathered just as much data as TikTok, if not more. She and Ramaswamy began shouting over each other as she criticized his general stance toward China.
Ramaswamy, 37, a political novice who is pitching himself as the next iteration of former president Donald Trump, defended his decision to join the app as politically savvy.
“I have a radical idea for the Republican Party,” he said. “We need to win elections. And part of how we win elections is reaching the next generation of young Americans where they are.”
Yet even as Ramaswamy pushes forward on TikTok, he repeatedly said that children under the age of 16 should not “be using addictive social media.”
During the debate, moderators also pressed Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on whether his critical stance toward U.S. tech companies could give China an edge.
“We’re not saying you don’t want to do business, but you want it to be a free market,” DeSantis said, pushing back against the moderators. “And right now they’re monopolies.”
Drew Harwell contributed to this report.