With TikTok facing a ban in the United States and new concerns arising in Europe and beyond, there is the question of whether a TikTok ban could happen in Hungary.
“Whatever the end of the American story, TikTok will not collapse, as it is too important a tool for the Chinese government,” Zsolt Ződi, a researcher at the Society Research Institute of the National University of Public Service (NKE), told Hungarian newspaper Magyar Nemzet,
“I think it is unlikely that TikTok will be banned in Hungary in the near future. The Hungarian government now – unlike the U.S. leadership – maintains good relations with the Chinese government. If there will be any restrictions in the future, they will presumably only apply to government officials, this practice is not unprecedented in Europe,” Ződi said.
As is known, TikTok shut down operations in the United States late Saturday night. This made the app inaccessible to 170 million American users as it also disappeared from Apple and Google’s app installation services until Donald Trump extended its operation for another 90 days.
One of the concerns is that it is not known how much insight the Chinese Communist Party has into user data.
“If the U.S. has information about this, they will not tell us,” he said. He added that the Chinese government controls all Chinese platforms. These platforms are owned by entrepreneurs who are friendly with the Chinese government and would not refuse any requests from the government.
A case has been filed against him in Europe.
The researcher said: TikTok has already been banned in Pakistan, India, and Afghanistan, and in some European countries, including Austria, Belgium, Estonia, France, the Netherlands, and Norway, government officials have been banned from being on the platform.
Through TikTok, he says the Chinese are very subtly spreading Chinese propaganda.
“The algorithm is not known in the countries where it operates, so skeptics say events like what happened in Romania could happen practically anywhere. A candidate came out of nowhere, who was so amplified by TikTok that he unexpectedly won the first round of the presidential election,” he explained.
The European Commission launched formal proceedings against TikTok in December for alleged violations of the Digital Services Regulation (DSA).
The EU institution claims that TikTok has failed to meet its obligation to properly assess and mitigate systemic risks in elections, especially in the Romanian presidential election in November. Others say that the EU’s preferred candidate did not win the elections, which motivated the intervention into Romanian politics to keep front-runner Calin Georgescu from power by outright canceling democratic elections.
🇩🇪🇪🇺Democracy is dead in the EU
Former EU Commissioner Thierry Breton warns they will simply cancel elections in Germany if the wrong party wins.
"We did it in Romania, and we will obviously have to do it, if necessary, in Germany."pic.twitter.com/IySYrCPiD1
— Remix News & Views (@RMXnews) January 10, 2025However, the NKE researcher explained that the DSA applies to all platforms with over 45 million users, so the initiation of the procedure cannot be considered a sign of a ban. Elon Musk has previously received similar notices. Ződi added that due to the DSA, it is difficult to restrict a platform, and the EU does not have the legal means to ban the platform. TikTok has 1.6 billion active users worldwide, with around 280 million in Europe. According to the researcher, banning the platform would therefore not be a very good move politically.
What does the USA want?
According to Zsolt Ződi, TikTok has not been banned in the U.S., but the deadline set by the Americans for the Chinese to find an American buyer who can invest in the operation of the algorithm has expired. The U.S. aims to gain control of the company, for which a 51 percent stake is sufficient. The Americans offered around $20 billion for the deal, which is not enough because TikTok’s annual revenue is also at this level.
According to the researcher, the purchase price may have been the deciding factor in the deal.
Ződi also said that Donald Trump would be satisfied with a 50 percent ownership stake. The essence of this ownership structure is that neither party can act without the other. The expert explained that in the USA, 7 million of the 170 million users are financially dependent on the platform in some way, so a permanent ban could have serious political consequences here, just like in Europe, but he believes that due to the bipartisan decision, President Trump cannot do much.
TikTok is by far the most popular app in the world among people under the age of 30. It is the most effective channel to reach this age group.
“The screen time spent on it is also outrageously high. It is a very addictive platform. Whatever the end of the American story, TikTok will not collapse, because it is too important a tool for the Chinese government. For an emerging world power, a platform on which the world’s youth has become specifically dependent is a dream,” the researcher concluded.
