My comment at the site:
1. Tik Tok has 170 million subscribers in the U.S., but the US has only 22 m teenagers, so clearly it's not just "silly teenagers" using Tik Tok. [This is to the Lo point that “it’s only teenagers posting stupid vids, so why worry?”]
1. Tik Tok has 170 million subscribers in the U.S., but the US has only 22 m teenagers, so clearly it's not just "silly teenagers" using Tik Tok. [This is to the Lo point that “it’s only teenagers posting stupid vids, so why worry?”]
2. The CEO of Tik Tok admitted in Senate testimony that Chinese officials have full access to all data gathered and that alone is a present security threat. IMO.
3. Other countries have banned Tik Tok, including India, Pakistan… and China itself! ADDED: Australia, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Taiwan, the UK and EU governance bodies have all banned or partially banned the app. [Ref]
4. China does not allow, in China, anything like a Tik Tok owned by a foreign entity.
5. It's not just security. There's also the algorithms. These are controlled by China. (See 2 above). We would be naive to imagine they do not tweak the algorithms to suit China needs.
6. Facebook, etc, being similar to Tik Tok is irrelevant. Because: (a) we are also worried about them, and (b) They are not Chinese-owned.
7. The Bill was passed by overwhelming majority in the Reps.
8. The Bill does not aim only at China, but also Russia, North Korea and Iran. These are countries that have been clear in their enmity to the US. (Eg, Iran: "Death to America!”).
ADDED: Some Tik Tok supporters are pointing out in the comments that it’s owned by ByteDance and that in turn is majority-owned by international investors. But ByteDance is based in Beijing, and has to follow Beijing laws. Which require, inter alia, that China-based companies release any information that the government demands. Which the CEO of Tik Tok says it does. (In testimony that was said to be a “disaster” for Tik Tok).
A Tik Tok apologist claims China only owns 1% of ByteDance. Ok. But then China has one-third of the Board seats. Hmmm....
It would be very naive of us to assume that because “international investors” have a majority of the ByteDance (if indeed they do), and China only a small part, that there’s “nothing to worry about”. Nothing to see here. Right. Those same people are more than willing to believe that the US’s National Endowment for Democracy is a CIA cut-out. And that the Confucius Institutes are equally innocent (they aren’t).
Also: why are people so all-fired up about Tik Tok, but would be quite happy to see restrictions on the likes of X or Facebook? Why the difference? Just supporting China? IDK.
