It was always BS though. AOC did an interview where she explains (what should be obvious to anyone), that US Gov had no proof whatsoever beyond trying to point at that Chinese law (much like Section 702 in the US), that makes TikTok seem risky.
Except that TikTok isn't legally a Chinese company, and isn't really under their jurisdiction.
Chinese companies like to be under the control of the Chinese government no more than big American companies like to be overly exposed to the US... Thus Apple being based in Ireland and keeping most of their profit outside of the US.
Absolutely and verifiably false, again! There are numerous data points that prove that the CCP exploits the TikTok algorithm to influence western views towards a pro-eastern bend. See my comment history for references. The close-doored national intelligence briefing that the senate got about the way the CCP manipulates the algorithm and on how TikTok is a national security threat resulted in a 100-0 vote in favor of banning TikTok. When do you get 100% of the senate to agree upon anything, ever?
TikTok was a threat, and will remain a threat until it’s divested from or shut down.
And the USA wants only fb and google to be able to tell them what propaganda to push. It's all a propaganda war, it's not about propaganda-vs-real news.
There's also the Section 702 angle... US can get all US social media to spy on non-US citizens without anything in the way of legal pushback.
US citizens have rights. Non-US citizens, do not.
I think the problem with TikTok under their audited, non-interference under their Project Texas is... That they might not easily hand over data, or suppress views that US Gov isn't a fan of.
Which will change once TikTok is owned by a US company.
They have all the US data on Oracle servers, with Oracle having the responsibility to monitor all access and make sure that no Chinese entity can get access.
All algorithms are monitored by Oracle such that only user actions can determine what they see.
So, unless you're claiming that "Oracle" is actively colluding with China, you're letting your worldview be defined by government propaganda.
The Pro-Palestine thing that TikTok refused to suppress at US Gov's command, is not "China promoting Eastern causes", it's "Americans" taking a position that the government wants suppressed.
Thus Biden being forced to cave and at least pretend that he cared about Palestinians towards the end of his Presidency... Which he stopped caring about once Democrats had lost and it no longer mattered what Democrat voters think for the time being.
We all know that's b.s. after the leaked audio recordings from TikTok meetings describing how US user data is still accessed from China.
> "Everything is seen in China," said a member of TikTok’s Trust and Safety department in a September 2021 meeting. In another September meeting, a director referred to one Beijing-based engineer as a "Master Admin" who "has access to everything."
The idea that Oracle can prevent Chinese employees from accessing data when the servers are running code written by ByteDance on bare metal and the US team literally reports to the Chinese one is, frankly, ridiculous.
Except that TikTok isn't legally a Chinese company, and isn't really under their jurisdiction.
Chinese companies like to be under the control of the Chinese government no more than big American companies like to be overly exposed to the US... Thus Apple being based in Ireland and keeping most of their profit outside of the US.