To Stop a Bad Guy With an App, You Need a Good Guy With an App Store
COMMENTARY
Nearly everyone has an opinion on whether the United States should force a TikTok ban over national security concerns. Voters support a ban, Trump opposes a ban and Biden just signed Congress’ divestment bill. Everyone from security hawks to tech experts to “suburbanites” have weighed in. But what gets lost in the debate over the national security threat posed by TikTok is how exactly a ban would work, and how that ban would fit into our country’s tech policy framework.
In legislation recently passed by Congress and signed by the president, the banning of one app, TikTok, is contingent on the functionality of another: the app store.
Voters may not think a lot about the app store on their smartphone, and that’s largely intentional. App stores are meant to be an in-and-out experience where consumers find the app they’re looking for, download it to their phone and move on with their day. But the app store also plays an important curation role for phone users, recommending safe apps, and downranking or deplatforming risky apps that put user data and financial information at risk.
But as forgettable as app stores may be for everyday consumers, in the world of tech policy, the role of app stores on smartphones has been contentious. Policymakers in Congress have introduced the Open App Markets Act, a bill aimed at disrupting the control of large technology companies over the smartphone app ecosystem.
OAMA’s intent is clear: prevent technology giants from guarding the only entrance to your smartphone’s app ecosystem. To that end, the bill requires devices to play host to alternative app stores regardless of whether an app store’s developer can be trusted.
If the iPhone or Android were a castle and the app store its gate, then OAMA would allow anyone to build a new entrance and guard it themselves. Of course, opening new entrances with unverified guards creates a less secure digital environment.
App stores have a history of playing a critical role in protecting not only digital security and privacy, but in reducing the spread of misinformation online. Just as social media platforms temporarily banned former President Donald Trump following the Capitol insurrection, app stores deplatformed apps used to organize the insurrection in order to prevent further violence. Had OAMA required phones to host multiple app stores, insurrectionist apps would have more easily continued to flourish, fueling misinformation.
The role of app stores is so critical to keeping users safe that the authors of the TikTok bill made it the cornerstone of their legislation. The TikTok bill will enforce a ban by prohibiting app stores from carrying the app altogether. Of course, that won’t work if users can just download an unverified third-party app store and get TikTok that way.
Amidst all the TikTok buzz, the critical question of how the ban will get enforced hasn’t gotten much attention. But for digital policy in the United States, those details are critically important and impact how lawmakers approach a range of other issues, including app store competition concerns.
It’s clear where voters stand on these issues. Recent polling shows that consumers prioritize protection from scams and misinformation when it comes to tech policy. The regulation of app store rules, on the other hand, barely registers among voter tech concerns.
The TikTok ban has provided a chance for policymakers to match those voter priorities by putting Americans’ digital security and safety first. Rather than hand wringing over how many gates lead into a smartphone’s castle, policymakers must focus on how secure existing gates are.
Adam Kovacevich is CEO and founder of the center-left tech group Chamber of Progress. Before founding Chamber of Progress, Adam served as a Google executive for over a decade and led government relations at the scooter company Lime. He can be reached on LinkedIn.
