Five ways TikTok is viewed as a potential threat to US national security
TikTok, the immensely popular video-sharing app controlled by Beijing-based ByteDance, is viewed as a threat to national security by many Americans. The five reasons why are as follows:
DATA SHARING
Like its competitors Instagram, Snapchat, and YouTube, TikTok relies on data, and young users’ willingness to reveal personal information on the highly addictive app seems to know no bounds. Critics of TikTok are concerned that this data is being handled in China, where the Communist Party is in power, by a Chinese corporation. However, some experts think the threat is exaggerated and that malicious actors may access vast amounts of data regardless of who controls the platform and where it is based.
SPYING
Like many other apps, TikTok may provide third parties access to a user’s complete phone.
“Anytime you have an app on the phone, there’s the potential for using that app to bridge access to other things on the phone,” said Michael Daniel, CEO of Cyber Threat Alliance.
This might entail “secretly activating the device’s microphone or camera without the user’s knowledge,” said Daniel, a former US National Security Council cybersecurity coordinator. Etay Maor, senior director of security strategy at Cato Networks, cited Pegasus, a piece of Israeli-developed software that was employed by governments all over the world to spy on opponents and detractors.
“Maybe with TikTok, we are just clicking and installing the Chinese version of Pegasus on our devices… “I think that is the worry of the US government,” Maor said.
CENSORSHIP
Cybersecurity experts also point to China’s government’s capacity to filter TikTok content in order to uphold Communist Party objectives as another possible hazard.
“The idea is that the Chinese government would eventually tell TikTok outside of China that you will not show anything that supports Tibet or Taiwan and thereby shape the information environment,” said Daniel.
Tiktok says that it has never altered anything to appease the Chinese government, but observers warn that the possibility that Beijing would turn to Tiktok exists given the extent of censorship in China.
“If you look at the way the Chinese government has censored information, suppressed journalism, and done things of that nature at home, it’s really not at all far-fetched to say there’s a risk associated with the same thing happening on TikTok elsewhere,” said Sherman.
MISINFORMATION
Another concern is that, similar to how Russia used TikTok in 2016 to influence the US presidential election, the Chinese government may use it to disturb US society. The Cybersecurity for Democracy team at New York University and Global Witness have already published data that suggests TikTok failed to effectively filter a significant amount of electoral misinformation in the weeks before the US midterm elections last month.
TikTok “did the poorest out of all of the platforms assessed in the trial,” the scientists discovered. TikTok responded by introducing safety controls for election-related content and mandating account verification for official and political accounts.
Just because China
Given its Chinese roots, several analysts question if TikTok can do much to allay worries, particularly in light of the Republicans’ January takeover of the US House of Representatives. Republicans, who historically have been harder on Beijing than Democrats, have made the majority of the arguments against TikTok.
While US President Joe Biden negotiates a long-term security deal for the app to continue running under Chinese ownership in the US, Republicans are also exerting pressure on Democrats. Politico claims that the Biden administration is split on whether to compel TikTok’s Chinese owner to sell its US businesses, casting doubt on the suggested solution.