Governing TikTok: Why the U.S. and EU Read the Same Platform Differently

Open Terms Archive findings provide an evidence-based entry point for comparing how the United States and the European Union have approached TikTok as a governance challenge. In the United States, the platform has been increasingly debated within a national security framework, shaped by concerns about scale, algorithmic influence, and uncertainty over future exposure. In the EU, TikTok has more often been treated through privacy and regulatory compliance regimes, with oversight structured around legal standards, transparency requirements, and enforcement.

A recent Open Terms Archive memo on TikTok policy updates across Europe, the United Kingdom, and Switzerland highlights an expanded data footprint and deeper behavioral signals. These updates are noteworthy not only for what they change in the short term, but for what they reveal about platform trajectory: capability can accumulate through incremental revisions that are difficult to evaluate without longitudinal monitoring. Taken together, the U.S. security framing and the EU compliance model highlight a broader tension in platform governance, raising questions about how different jurisdictions define risk, how they respond to evolving data practices, and whether existing tools are designed for long-term strategic exposure rather than static compliance snapshots.