New York
CNN
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President Donald Trump on Wednesday dismissed national security concerns about TikTok, saying, “Is it so important for China to spy on young people? On little kids watching crazy videos?
It was a surprising comment coming from the guy who first tried to get the US to ban TikTok over fears that the Chinese government could use the app to gather intelligence on Americans. . Its in 2020 Executive order Trump, who tried unsuccessfully to ban the app, said TikTok’s data collection allowed the Chinese government to “track the locations of federal employees and contractors, create dossiers of personal information for blackmail, and conduct corporate espionage.” may be permitted.”
Since Trump’s 2020 executive order, US lawmakers have largely agreed that it poses a threat. State and federal government agencies and the military have barred staff from downloading the app to their work devices, beginning during Trump’s first term. And last year, Congress passed a law with bipartisan support requiring parent company ByteDance to sell TikTok to a non-Chinese owner or face a ban, which the Supreme Court struck down on national security grounds. Maintained.
But Trump’s comments about data security — while dramatically oversimplified — may have some merit.
Some privacy and technology experts say that simply transferring control of TikTok to a new owner will not be a silver bullet for protecting US users’ data from China, given Beijing’s access to information about Americans. There are many other ways to
Other social media platforms and websites TikTok collects similar data — such as location data, search history and purchase history — and many other sites sell that data to data brokers, who make it available online to any willing buyer. .
“The Chinese government can easily buy US user data from data brokers. It’s widely available,” Eva Galperin, director of cybersecurity at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, told CNN’s “Terms of Service” podcast earlier this month. .
“If U.S. lawmakers really cared about protecting U.S. consumer data from the Chinese government, they would pass a comprehensive data privacy law that would limit what kind of data all companies can collect and all companies What kind of data can they sell,” he said. (TikTok CEO Shu Chiu Testified before Congress in 2023. (that the company does not sell to data brokers.)
China also has advanced cyber-espionage capabilities that just last year allowed the country to spy on the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, the government office that reviews foreign investment for national security threats. Reviews, as well as US telecom networks.
Data collection isn’t the only concern surrounding TikTok. US lawmakers fear the Chinese government could force ByteDance to manipulate the TikTok algorithm., To spread Chinese propaganda or misinformation, or to cause discord among Americans.
But despite this, Chinese government actors have also successfully weaponized US-owned social media platforms to spread misinformation and harass Americans. (TikTok has also denied that Beijing would have access to manipulate its algorithm.)
Yet, contrary to Trump’s view, TikTok is much more than just “kids watching crazy videos.” About half of the US population – 170 million Americans – frequently use the platform to discuss news, politics and world events.
Trump’s comments may be aimed at gaining support for his proposal that instead of a wholesale transfer of TikTok to an American buyer, the US and China could share control of the platform as a 50-50 joint venture. It’s unclear whether the proposal would meet the letter of the TikTok sales or embargo law, which seeks to prevent anyone. Foreign adversaries from controlling such a popular social media platform.
The reversal in Trump’s stance on TikTok has raised questions about why he seems less concerned now. About TikTok Threatening US National Security Trump has said he changed his mind because he “had to use it.”
One explanation may be that China is less powerful than it was five years ago. Their economy is not as strong as it used to be. Internationally, they are less vocal and active and influential,” said Sarah Krepps, director of the Tech Policy Institute at Cornell University.
But, Krepps said, “it’s not enough for me to explain why there was such a national security concern a few years ago and now it’s kind of being dismissed as a concern,” particularly of China. Given the continued interest and success in spying on Americans through other means, he said.
Still, whether TikTok’s U.S. operations are sold in part or in full, it could be difficult — if not impossible — to ensure that Beijing no longer has any means of controlling it, given that The technology originated in China.
“Whether you have 25%, 50%, 99% American ownership, it’s a legitimate question of whether, from an engineering standpoint, you can remove that Chinese control within the source code from TikTok itself,” Kreps said. said
TikTok, for its part, has been trying for years. Address American concerns. By storing US customer data in Oracle-owned servers in the United States, offering access to third-party monitors to examine its systems and claiming that its China-based parent company had access to it. Beijing could not, even if the authorities demanded it – albeit unsuccessfully. .
While it may not be a perfect solution, some experts say selling TikTok — in its entirety — is still important to U.S. national security because of the possibility that China could use TikTok’s user data. And could manipulate the app’s algorithm to target Americans. Specific videos they may be inclined to believe or engage with.
Justice Brett Kavanaugh summed up Congress’s concern in a Supreme Court hearing earlier this month that TikTok’s challenge to the sale or embargo law, which the court rejected.
Kavanaugh, a U.S. lawmaker, said there was “concern that China was accessing information about millions of Americans, tens of millions of Americans, including teenagers, people in their twenties” and that the country was giving that information to “people. can use “to change, blackmail people”. People who a generation from now will be working at the FBI or the CIA or the State Department.
“I think it becomes really, really dangerous from a national security perspective,” said Lindsay Gorman, managing director of the German Marshall Fund’s technology program. In theory, the Byte Dance could, China said, “use this incredibly powerful tool to influence Americans … toward certain thoughts and certain actions at the individual level.”
