This week, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear oral arguments that could decide the fate of TikTok, the social media platform owned by Chinese technology company ByteDance.
Used by over 170 million Americans and over a billion people globally, TikTok has faced scrutiny for its use of the social media platform as a Trojan Horse for the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
Rather than merely inform and entertain users, Tik Tok collects sensitive user data accessible to ByteDance and, by extension, the Chinese Communist Party.
Months ago, the U.S. enacted the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act, requiring ByteDance to divest its ownership of TikTok within 270 days.
Now, as the Jan. 19, 2024 deadline approaches, ByteDance is urging the high court to deliver an injunction that would delay the divestiture date.
They hope that by running down the clock they can renegotiate their position under a new administration and avoid splitting the CCP off from TikTok altogether.
This shouldn’t happen and the Supreme Court will be on solid ground if it does not allow the CCP to use procedural games to delay divestment of TikTok.
The app, so long as it remains under China’s orbit poses a grave national security threat and should be treated as such.
After years of growth, TikTok has become the subject of numerous studies that document the massive amounts of data it collects on its users.
Indeed, one of the top concerns for the Department of Justice is how the data it collects could be used for espionage, blackmail, and even influencing public opinion.
TikTok collects data on a user’s search history, watch history, IP address, keystrokes, behavioral data, and precise geolocation.
It also gathers identifying information on user contacts that don’t even have the app.
Information like this presents China with tremendous intelligence opportunities allowing them to uncover extremely sensitive and personal proclivities or vices of Americans as well as allows for blackmail of influential figures.
ByteDance by its own admission was caught pulling location data on a Forbes journalist who was reporting on ByteDance’s surveillance capabilities.
The move showcased that, contrary to TikTok’s claims, user information remains readily available to ByteDance employees in China and can and can be pulled at will.
For ByteDance, which maintains an internal CCP committee like many Chinese companies do, the implications of their level of involvement with the party are extremely concerning.
But TikTok isn’t just about spying.
Through the app, the CCP has unfettered access to millions of Americans at any given moment and is able to disseminate information that can shape public opinion.
Indeed, this may prove to be the greatest threat.
One in-depth study showed that CCP indoctrination efforts through TikTok are not only real but are proving effective on America’s younger generations.
Among other findings in the report, TikTok usage, compared to other social media platforms, emerged as the number one predictor of favorable attitudes toward the CCP, its human rights record, and its geopolitical policies.
TikTok’s algorithm goes out of its way to amplify pro-CCP content and suppress anti-CCP content despite the latter having higher engagement.
The study found that much of the pro-CCP content originates from state-linked entities like media outlets and influencers.
By suppressing negative sentiments about China and flooding the application with irrelevant content that overshadows human rights abuses, TikTok successfully caters content for the user that aligns with CCP propaganda objectives.
It’s so effective that compared to non-TikTok users, users with more than three hours of daily TikTok usage showed a 48% increase in agreement with the statement that "Tiananmen Square is mostly known for being a popular travel destination."
Indeed, people have died to see it.
TikTok isn’t like other social media apps.
It suppresses the free flow of information to advance China’s authoritarian influence all while storing swaths of data on its users that remain accessible to the CCP at any time and for any purpose.
One of ByteDance’s own former executives maintains that CCP members in Beijing have a "god user" credential, which grants them backdoor access to user data stored by ByteDance.
Similar revelations were made about technology from Chinese tech company, Huawei, several years ago. Then, the United States did not hesitate to ban it outright.
To this day, China remains America’s top geopolitical adversary.
The CCP’s authoritarian regime ensures that almost every facet of Chinese society, both public and private, is oriented toward competition and undermining U.S. sovereignty. TikTok is no exception.
The court must not bend.
The Supreme Court could in fact uphold the divestment law based solely on the federal government’s compelling interest in preventing mass data collection by a foreign adversary.
China’s propaganda efforts with Tik Tok only makes the divestment case stronger.
The divestment law is entirely consistent with the First Amendment.
It addresses the serious threats to national security posed by the Chinese government’s control of Tik Tok while imposing no limits on speech by Tik Tok.
Furthermore, it rests in a long line of measures involving limits on the ability of hostile nations to operate within the United States.
ByteDance’s claims that their forced divestiture violates First Amendment principles are entirely frivolous, and they know it.
The court must act decisively to reject ByteDance’s Trojan Horse claims.
Anything less would risk exposing millions of Americans to the manipulations and surveillance of a hostile foreign power.
Horace Cooper is an author and legal commentator. His most recent book is “Put Y'all Back in Chains: How Joe Biden's Policies Hurt Black Americans” Read Horace Cooper's Reports — More Here.
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