Whereas TikTok has over 150 million US users, who’re more and more spending extra of their time within the app, its reputation is also clouding issues round its potential for hurt, which is the important thing focus of the ongoing discussions around whether or not to ban the app.
And whereas, for essentially the most half, I might belief the recommendation of cybersecurity specialists on this entrance, with varied officers, from varied nations, raising significant concerns about the app, I might additionally look to different instances the place China-based teams have been looking for to infiltrate US-based networks, to be able to collect data, seed propaganda, and manipulate opinion.
Which is occurring on a regular basis. Simply at the moment, Microsoft reported that Chinese language state-sponsored group ‘Volt Tycoon’ has carried out varied operations designed to disrupt important communications infrastructure between the US and Asia, with a view to manipulating such in instances of future crises.
As per Microsoft:
“Volt Storm has been energetic since mid-2021 and has focused important infrastructure organizations in Guam and elsewhere in the USA. On this marketing campaign, the affected organizations span the communications, manufacturing, utility, transportation, building, maritime, authorities, data know-how, and schooling sectors. Noticed conduct means that the menace actor intends to carry out espionage and preserve entry with out being detected for so long as potential.”
Google, in the meantime, has removed tens of thousands of YouTube channels over the previous yr linked to a different China-based menace actor known as ‘Dragonbridge’, which seeks to construct YouTube audiences with a view to spreading pro-China propaganda, whereas Twitter and Facebook are additionally frequently tasked with addressing Chinese language-backed campaigns designed to regulate and affect dialogue inside every app.
Given the scope of efforts to mitigate such on non-Chinese language-owned platforms, it appears fairly protected to imagine that TikTok, which is owned by China’s ByteDance, is much more more likely to be a vector for a similar. And with ByteDance primarily based in China, it’s tougher for authorities to make sure optimum transparency over such, whereas the corporate can also be sure by China’s cybersecurity legal guidelines, which successfully grant full knowledge entry to CCP officers on request.
Add to this stories that ByteDance has many CCP-aligned staff, and that the corporate has itself sought to use TikTok data for surveillance purposes, on US journalists no much less, and it does appear that there’s a reasonably sturdy case for concern about TikTok’s operational approaches on this respect, and the way it might be a software for illicit schemes.
TikTok, after all, has repeatedly denied this, whereas additionally claiming that its US person knowledge will quickly be siloed off from all China-based staff. However even that declare has been refuted by Oracle, its key companion on this undertaking, whereas latest stories have additionally prompt that TikTok employees have been sharing user information via internal messaging systems, which may simply be infiltrated.
At finest, the stories recommend that TikTok’s groups have a unique view on optimum knowledge safety than many western cybersecurity specialists, whereas at worst, they mirror that TikTok is certainly beholden to the Chinese language Authorities, and that guardian firm ByteDance is already doing its bidding.
And once more, if you match this up with broader reportage of China-based affect operations in different apps, I’d says the case for a TikTok ban is pretty sturdy, notably as China continues to escalate tensions with neighboring regions, and threaten to challenge the US on totally different fronts.
The counter-argument that different apps additionally observe and make the most of comparable person knowledge is just not the identical on this respect, as there’s no geopolitical adversarialism inside US-based organizations. And there’s no file of Meta or Twitter seeking to manipulate such in the identical approach, with ByteDance seemingly taking a unique view to this ingredient than US corporations.
Does that imply that TikTok must be banned? Once more, I might facet with the specialists on this entrance, who could be far more knowledgeable of the potential for hurt. However I might notice that there’s a sturdy case, and that in case you are advocating for TikTok to stay in operation, you could take into account your private bias inside that, and whether or not the reported info match up with this stance.
CFIUS is still deliberating on a US ban, and TikTok remains to be working to deal with all issues, which may nonetheless see a collaborative resolution established. However don’t be stunned if the White Home does announce a ban, someday within the close to future. Whether or not you just like the app or not.
