The problem with this line of reasoning -- although I very much agree that it's a bad look (among other things) -- is that there are legitimate information-gathering and security concerns with TikTok that its connections to the Chinese Communist Party. Worse, TikTok itself demonstrated the problem pretty clearly during the Congressional deliberations on the bill.
Consider:
1) TikTok is infamously intrusive in its attempts to spy on its users (and even its non-users). It's been caught repeatedly accessing data that it shouldn't have access to or that users have denied it based on privacy settings. It's been caught repeatedly violating Google's (markedly anemic) privacy policy to grab things like clipboard contents on Android phones. It's been caught spying specifically on American journalists. Its data collection practices mean that it's been able to track American military deployments. And while yes, American companies have done similar things, not even Meta is as extensive, shameless, or egregious about it.
2) TikTok has been known to manipulate users' feeds both to their detriment and for its own ends. This includes several controversies about shadow-banning information that would be embarrassing to or critical of the Chinese government. The most dramatic recent demonstration of this was, in fact, during the debate on this bill, when representatives' offices were flooded with phone calls from panicked kids and teenagers, at least some of whom literally didn't know what a representative was, who were begging Congress not to take TikTok away from them at TikTok's behest.
3) TikTok is designed explicitly to be as addictive as possible to children and to youths... thereby maximizing their engagement with the platform, as well as the platform's ability to spy on and/or influence them.
4) ByteDance, the company that owns and runs TikTok, is pretty thoroughly beholden to the Chinese government.
So, yes, there's a problem here. Perhaps predictably, our congress-critters looked at this mess and, in the manner of moral panics since time immemorial, decided that the problem was obviously number 4 -- that it was a Chinese company doing all of this and not an American one. And so, rather than passing laws that would offend GFAAM (and the car industry, 'cause *holy shit*) by, say, limiting such data collection and protect Americans' privacy rights.
Consider:
1) TikTok is infamously intrusive in its attempts to spy on its users (and even its non-users). It's been caught repeatedly accessing data that it shouldn't have access to or that users have denied it based on privacy settings. It's been caught repeatedly violating Google's (markedly anemic) privacy policy to grab things like clipboard contents on Android phones. It's been caught spying specifically on American journalists. Its data collection practices mean that it's been able to track American military deployments. And while yes, American companies have done similar things, not even Meta is as extensive, shameless, or egregious about it.
2) TikTok has been known to manipulate users' feeds both to their detriment and for its own ends. This includes several controversies about shadow-banning information that would be embarrassing to or critical of the Chinese government. The most dramatic recent demonstration of this was, in fact, during the debate on this bill, when representatives' offices were flooded with phone calls from panicked kids and teenagers, at least some of whom literally didn't know what a representative was, who were begging Congress not to take TikTok away from them at TikTok's behest.
3) TikTok is designed explicitly to be as addictive as possible to children and to youths... thereby maximizing their engagement with the platform, as well as the platform's ability to spy on and/or influence them.
4) ByteDance, the company that owns and runs TikTok, is pretty thoroughly beholden to the Chinese government.
So, yes, there's a problem here. Perhaps predictably, our congress-critters looked at this mess and, in the manner of moral panics since time immemorial, decided that the problem was obviously number 4 -- that it was a Chinese company doing all of this and not an American one. And so, rather than passing laws that would offend GFAAM (and the car industry, 'cause *holy shit*) by, say, limiting such data collection and protect Americans' privacy rights.