How is TikTok different in China versus America?
WARNING-GRAPHIC FOOTAGE: Former Air Force chief software officer Nicholas Chaillan examines the difference between what American users and Chinese consumers see on their TikTok feeds on 'Tucker Carlson Tonight.'
Technology presents both challenges and opportunities – it contains solutions to many of the world’s most perplexing problems while also creating many catalyzing issues and threats. To that point it’s time to start asking questions about how we value data. From a privacy, monetization, or security standpoint, we need to decide what we care about and have tough discussions about the steps we need to take once we determine what data must be protected or preserved both now and into the future.
TikTok is a short-form video hosting service with over 1 billion users worldwide. In the United States, it has been downloaded over 200 million times surpassing Google in terms of internet traffic. In April 2021, media reports revealed the unprecedented degree of control and moderation that Chinese owned TikTok has over the content on its platform. It’s been revealed that company executives determine which videos go viral and which appear on personalized recommendation pages, ultimately setting worldwide trends.
The level of data manipulation, curation, and apparent corporate support is startling and cause for great concern as the program could be wielded as a tool for propaganda to mislead Americans and undermine our national interests.
FCC COMMISSIONER URGES TIKTOK BE REMOVED FROM APPLE, GOOGLE STORES
Recent reports have confirmed that the majority of U.S. user data is easily and regularly accessed by TikTok and its parent company ByteDance from the Chinese mainland. What we have long suspected has been confirmed—the Chinese government is monitoring everything on the app, while the engineers working on the platform take all their orders from the main office in Beijing. ByteDance operates exclusively in China under the full control of the CCP and their National Intelligence and Data Security Laws. Furthermore, the CEO of TikTok simultaneously served as the CFO of ByteDance until this year. The CCP holds a one percent ownership stake in ByteDance and one of three board seats.
TikTok presents an immediate threat to both Americans and U.S. national security, and a massive technical collection platform operated at the behest of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Countries around the world are already acting to insulate themselves from CCP influence through TikTok. India, the world’s largest mobile user market, permanently banned TikTok in 2021 after the Indian government became convinced it was a tool of influence and espionage used by the CCP.
This latest revelation about TikTok user data being accessible by China and by extension the CCP tells us everything we need to know about the urgency of this issue. I've warned that TikTok as a company represents a significant threat to our society via its ability to collect, influence, and shape cultural trends in our country. This platform, which is on track to outpace Twitter and Snapchat combined in ad revenue this year, could easily be wielded as a potent tool for the CCP to steal American data and undermine American security. The CCP has already established population surveillance systems through a social credit score system domestically and has vigorously exported its domestic surveillance systems, honed on the Uygur population, abroad via its "Safe Cities" initiative. The availability of TikTok user data to the CCP presents similar threats aimed at American citizens.
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Currently, the app is banned on Department of Defense (DoD) and Department of State hardware, and I introduced a bill to ensure it is prohibited on all devices issued to Department of Homeland Security (DHS) personnel. Despite all of this, the Biden administration has failed to move on the ongoing case involving TikTok which could divorce it as an entity controlled by the CCP. Instead, President Biden signed an Executive Order a year ago rescinding prior Trump-era Executive Orders that would explicitly address the threat from TikTok. These calculated actions have sent a clear message to the CCP—under this administration, the U.S. will not hold the Chinese accountable for its nefarious behavior. Equally as worrisome, we are now seeing Members of Congress playing right into the hands of the CCP launching their own TikTok accounts.
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Today the most serious threats we face are slow moving, involve commercial markets and are outside the lines of traditional warfare. They more often exist in the realms of technical jargon, specialized industries, or in the case of propaganda. If we do not begin to acknowledge this reality and take strong and decisive action, by the time we feel the effects as a society it may be too late.