The U.S. ban had strong support among baby boomer voters, while the proposal was more divisive among younger generations.
Legislators are working on legislation that would prohibit the use of Chinese-owned TikTok on government devices and throughout the United States.
Following warnings from US officials that TikTok—owned by Chinese tech firm ByteDance Ltd.—poses national security risks due to potential Chinese government exploitation, state and federal lawmakers have enacted legislation prohibiting the use of the popular social media app.
As Chinese-based social media platforms such as TikTok and WeChat face scrutiny in the US, a new Morning Consult/Politico poll finds that a slim majority of registered voters support a ban on Chinese-based social media platforms in the US, but younger voters are more divided.
A representative sample of 2,001 registered voters was polled between December 16 and 19, 2022, with an unweighted margin of error of +/- 2 percentage points. Due to rounding, figures may not add up to 100%.
According to the poll, 53% of voters support a ban on Chinese-based social media platforms in the United States, with a slightly higher share (59%) supporting a ban on government-issued devices.
Republicans were more likely to support both proposals than Democrats. Democratic voters were more likely to support the ban on government devices (56%) than the prohibition in the United States (48%).
The U.S. ban had strong support among baby boomer voters, while the proposal was more divisive among younger generations. The survey also asked voters about their support for the same bans on Russian-based social media platforms. The share of voters who supported the measures for Russian platforms was roughly the same as that of those who backed the Chinese-based prohibitions.
South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem (R) issued an executive order in late November prohibiting state employees and contractors from using TikTok on state-owned devices. Nearly 20 states have since followed suit, prohibiting government employees from using TikTok and other apps with potential ties to adversarial foreign governments.
Congress is also getting involved, with one bill prohibiting the use of TikTok on phones and devices issued by the federal government or a government corporation and another bill prohibiting the use of TikTok in the United States as well as all transactions involving Russian or Chinese social media companies. The first bill was passed unanimously by the Senate and was included in a government spending package set for a vote this week.
It is unclear whether President would sign the bills into law, as his administration is reportedly still working on a TikTok-US national security agreement, which has been plagued by delays due to several sticking points.