Europe has been accused of lagging behind the US when it comes to regulating China as major concerns have been raised over security and TikTok, a media executive and US-China expert has warned.
Chris Fenton said countries like Germany are definitely turning more of a friendlier eye towards China.
In March, the US House of Representatives overwhelmingly voted to pass a bill giving ByteDance, the Chinese company that owns TikTok, about six months to sell the US assets of the app or face a ban, citing national security concerns.
Now Fenton has said that Europe is behind the US when it comes to regulating China, surrounding concerns over the ban.
Chris Fenton has spoken about the TikTok legislation
Reuters/GB News
He said: "Well, it's surprising to me that Europe is behind on this particular equation because if you look at how tough the European Union has been, or even the UK on various other technology platforms, I would say they're paving the way and leading by example, in the US is typically behind on that type of regulatory framework.
"This one in particular is a little different. I do think there are a lot of crosswinds in terms of how people look at China and look at Beijing, in both Europe and the United States.
"Right now, you can see Germany is definitely turning more of a friendlier eye towards China. While it seems the United States is going the opposite way.
"So it really depends on where the crosswinds are blowing and how people are looking at the nation and that government and that system at any particular moment in terms of how all the more micro effects occur and TikTok is one of those."
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German Chancellor Olaf Scholz
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Fenton also stressed the influence that TikTok could have when it comes to news for younger people.
He said: "When you look at how much influence it has on under 35-year-olds, which is a big voting demographic, it's a lot.
"If you ever try to focus your attention here on just watching, say MSNBC, or maybe just watching Fox or Newsmax you can literally start to think of the world in one particular way.
"So if they want to throttle, say, an elected official that they would like not to win office, again, they can try to skew news a particular way.
President Joe Biden and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping held a telephone conversation earlier this week, with Biden raising American concerns about the app's ownership.
Senators are still undecided on how to proceed on the legislation currently working its way through the houses. Biden has said he would sign such a bill if it reached his desk.