The US says TikTok is a national security threat
And is threatening to ban it But will banning it really solve the problem?
Welcome to China Uncensored, I’m Chris Chappell.
Well the writing seems to be on the wall for TikTok.
Canada recently banned it on government devices.
New Zealand expanded its TikTok ban to include parliament.
The EU, the UK, and Australia all have at least partially banned it.
And most damaging of all,
Your mom is now on it.
Once your parents think something is cool, it officially stops being cool.
And now the US is taking it one step further.
The Biden administration is pushing TikTok’s Chinese parent company ByteDance to either
sell its stake or face a TikTok ban in the US.
As you can imagine, TikTok hasn’t been taking this lying down.
Earlier this month it opened a “transparency center”
Unfortunately, “it left as many questions as it had answers.
The purported inside look into TikTok’s algorithm hardly scratched the surface”
It’s kind of like when you ask a juggalo what their favorite Insane Clown Posse album
is, and they ask, “Deck one or deck two of the Joker Cards?”
Now I’m more confused than when I started.
Last month, TikTok started labeling state-affiliated media … about 3 years behind the competition,
but better late than never, right?
All that having failed, now it’s appealing directly to American voters.
“Hi everyone, it’s Shou here.
I’m the CEO of TikTok.
“Some politicians have started talking about banning TikTok.
Now this could take TikTok away from all 150 million of you.
I’ll be testifying before Congress later this week to share all that we’re doing
to protect Americans using the app and deliver on our mission to inspire creativity and to
bring joy.
Let me know in the comments what you want your elected representatives to know about
what you love about TikTok.”
Yes, 150 million users.
The phrase “TikTok army” just went from cute to a veiled threat.
But pay attention to how he frames that number “Today I’m super excited to announce that
more than 150 million Americans are on TikTok.
That’s almost half the US coming to TikTok.
“
Yeah Biden.
Wouldn’t want to piss off half the country before the 2024 election would you?
You know, like all those Gen Zers that live on TikTok?
My look at the time.Just 19 months away.
Are you really sure you want to start a generational civil war right now?
Hmmm?
Joke’s on the TikTok CEO.
Judging by his presidency so far, Biden isn’t afraid of pissing off even *more* than half
of the country.
Bring on the hate, zoomers.
But in all seriousness, TikTok should be worried.
This is the second time a US president has threatened to ban TikTok.
And the second time could be the charm.
President Trump tried to ban it through executive order, citing national security concerns,
which I’ll discuss in a moment.
The order got tangled up in the courts till Trump left office, and when Biden got into
office, he dropped the appeal to conduct his own national security review.
Two years later, Biden has reached the same conclusion that Trump did: that it’s a huge
national security threat.
The only thing that’s changed since then is that instead of 100 million users in the
US,
TikTok now has 150 million.
Or as TikTok put it, almost half the country.
At this rate, in a few more years, *every* American will be on TikTok.
Even me, against my will.
TikTok is spreading and assimilating like the Borg from Star Trek . A reference that’s
older than most people on TikTok… for now.
There actually has been one positive development in the past two years.
Congress is finally stepping up to make it easier to ban TikTok.
One of the reasons Trump’s executive order got tangled up in the courts is because his
executive order was on shaky legal ground.
Now a bipartisan group of Senators have introduced the RESTRICT Act to cover some of the legal
pitfalls a ban could face.
Why did it take them two years, you ask?
Well I’m guessing because they were having trouble coming up with a good enough acronym.
Might I suggest the “TickTock” Act?
You know, because time is ticking?
I just came up with that on the spot.
Seriously, whoever’s in charge of making acronyms for Congress, just hire me.
The bill hasn’t even been introduced into the House yet, at least not as of this recording,
but the White House already basically said that Biden will sign it if it passes Congress.
Which means this ban might actually have some teeth this time.
More on that, after the break.
Welcome back.
So the Biden administration has threatened to ban TikTok if Chinese owner ByteDance doesn’t
sell its stake in the company.
TikTok claims that it sunk $1.5 billion into a plan that would have satisfied US national
security concerns and allowed ByteDance to keep its stake.
But apparently the Biden administration isn’t buying it.
Now when people talk about national security concerns, there are two main things they’re
talking about.
One is that the Chinese Communist Party could get its hands on user data that the app collects.
And the other is the influence that the app’s algorithm could have on American users.
Or as TikTok likes to think of them, American voters.
…eventually .
Now, critics of the ban will say that these fears are being blown out of proportion and
that the US is overreacting without any evidence.
But there’s definitely plenty of evidence of China’s influence in TikTok.
First of all, TikTok collects a ton of user data, including things like IP addresses,
phone numbers, keystroke patterns, and email addresses.
And that is just a partial list.
And yes, it collects your keystroke patterns.
Because it’s not enough to know where you live, it also wants to know how hard and fast
you tap.
That should be enough to creep you out.
What are they looking for, bass players ?
Some experts say it’s on par with other social media apps, while some say TikTok collects
much more.
But either way, the fact that ByteDance, TikTok’s parent company is based in China makes any
data it collects seem like too much.
Part of TikTok’s plan to satisfy the government was to make sure that Americans’ data was
being stored inside the US, an initiative it named Project Texas.Presumably because
“you don’t mess with it.”
In June, TikTok said that *all* US user data was being routed through data centers by Texas-based
company Oracle.
At the same time, it said it still had backups on its own centers in Virginia and Singapore
but was planning to migrate that data to Oracle.
According to legal filings by the Trump administration, those backup data centers in Singapore were
owned by China-based company Alibaba.
This is my surprised face.
If you’re wondering why I don’t have any wrinkles, it’s because nothing shocks me
at this point.
Now the reason this isn’t just like any US company holding your data is because the
Chinese regime can basically get access to any data a Chinese company holds.
Under China’s 2017 Cybersecurity law, “network operators [are required] to cooperate with
Chinese crime or security investigators and allow full access to data and unspecified
‘technical support’ to the authorities upon request.”
So basically, the Chinese Communist Party can ask a company to turn over its data and
by law, it’s got to comply.
And even if the data is stored in Singapore, if the government shows up and asks a Chinese
company for its data, you know what’s going to happen if the company refuses to comply.
Thank God Panda Express is an American company that just happens to sell Chinese food.
I don’t need the CCP making inquiries into how many crab rangoons I eat in a single sitting.
But here’s where it gets visibly shady.
When TikTok started transferring data to Oracle under Project Texas, TikTok employees reportedly
tried to figure out where the data was being stored.
Leaked recordings show that “a member of TikTok’s U.S. Trust & Safety team . . . had
been asked by Chris Lepitak, TikTok’s Chief Internal Auditor, to meet at an LA-area restaurant
off hours.
Lepitak, who reports to Beijing-based Song Ye, then asked the employee detailed questions
about the location and details of the Oracle server that is central to TikTok’s plans
to limit foreign access to personal U.S. user data.”
So basically a high-level TikTok employee who reported directly to a Beijing-based ByteDance
employee tried to get detailed information about a TikTok server that ByteDance isn’t
supposed to be able to access.
This employee reported the conversation to his manager because he was so freaked out
by it.
Chris Lepitak was later fired, but not because of that.
He was fired for supposedly being part of a team that used TikTok data to spy on journalists
reporting on the company.
They also allegedly spied on TikTok’s former Global Security Chief, who was responsible
for limiting the access of American user data to China-based employees.
Not a good look for TikTok as it tries to reassure Americans that TikTok is safe.
That’s like a bear trying to convince salmon it’s not a danger to them while eating sushi.
But here’s the real kicker, and what this has to do with banning TikTok: according to
the New York Times, “The employees [that did this] obtained historical data” on the
journalists they tracked, not current data.
That means that with the data they already had—not using their current location —TikTok
slash ByteDance was able to get the locations of US-based journalists.
I don’t think that’s what those journalists had in mind when they asked people to follow
them on social media.
If you consider how much American user data—you know things like IP addresses, phone numbers
and contact info that TikTok has, and how easy it would be for the Chinese government
to get access to it, you could see how the Chinese government tracking Americans is a
real threat.
Okay, maybe not the only threat.
I’m pretty sure with all of China’s hacking
and all the user data being sold by data brokers, there are other ways China could get similar
info, but still really scary.
At the very least, maybe we should make it hard for them and not hand it over willingly.
This is like if while someone is trying to rob you , you said, “Oh wait!
Do you also want my passwords and pin codes, too?”
After the break, I’ll talk about how TitTok’s algorithms may be manipulating Americans.
Welcome back.
After clashes between the Chinese and Indian soldiers in 2020, India banned a bunch of
Chinese apps, including TikTok.
That was a good thing.
Buuut, India just banned the apps without mandating what should happen to all the user
data.
And according to Forbes, TikTok just kept it.
That’s like making cocaine illegal, but saying, “If you already have some, feel
free to use it.
Have a good time!”
“According to [an] employee and a review of internal TikTok and ByteDance programs
by Forbes, almost anyone at the companies with basic access to their tools can retrieve
and analyze granular data about past TikTok users in India.”
“One social mapping tool—which the TikTok employee jokingly called “NSA-To-Go”—can
spit out a list of any public or private user’s closest connections on TikTok and personally
identifiable information about them, and it still pulls up the TikTok profiles of people
in India”
Even their keystroke patterns . Seriously, are they looking for the next Flea or Geddy
Lee?
Now to some people, this may not seem like a big deal.
Who cares if a Chinese company, or even the Chinese government has my data?
I’m a nobody—what’s the worst they could do with it?
First of all… you’re not nobody.
You’re important, and I believe in you.
We gotta work on your self-esteem.
Second, according to the Trump administration, that data could potentially allow China to
track the locations of Federal employees and contractors, build dossiers of personal information
for blackmail, and conduct corporate espionage.”
And I’ll add another.
If the Chinese Communist Party can figure out what things make you tick…tok, they
could use this to sow division in the US.
China has already been caught meddling in two recent US elections.
And if it can sow enough division, it knows it can weaken the US, which will make China
comparatively stronger.
And this could have huge consequences if China were to invade Taiwan and the US tried to
mount a defense.
China is like a shady dude that’s causing drama in someone else’s relationship so
they’ll be too distracted to stop them from going after their single, vulnerable friend.
Which brings me to TikTok’s other major threat, its algorithm.
“TikTok’s secret weapon is believed to be its recommendation engine that keeps users
glued to their screens.
This engine, or algorithm, powers TikTok’s ‘For You’ page, which recommends the next
video to watch based on an analysis of your behavior.”
ByteDance engineers created TikTok’s algorithm, and one of the concerns is not just content
that users see, but also what they’re not seeing.
Back in 2019, The Guardian obtained documents showing that TikTok was censoring videos that,
shall we say, would not please Beijing.
If you ever wondered why China Uncensored isn’t on TikTok, it’s because we’d be
about as popular there as Salt Bae at a slug’s baby shower.
TikTok “instructs its moderators to censor videos that mention Tiananmen Square, Tibetan
independence, or the banned religious group Falun Gong”
Now TikTok says it no longer does that.
But that’s hard to prove, especially because TikTok’s transparency center “left as
many questions as it had answers.”
Just like asking a juggalo their favorite ICP album.
When a Washington Post journalist searched on TikTok for Shen Yun, an American dance
performance group that is highly critical of the Communist Party, TikTok’s first suggested
search term was “shen yun dance cult.”
This echoes language the Chinese government has used to describe the Falun Gong movement
linked to the dance troupe.”
For more on why the Chinese government is afraid of Shen Yun, check out this video I
did a few years ago.
I’ll put a link in the description below.
But it’s these kinds of stories that make you think those censorship guidelines the
Guardian saw in 2019 might still be baked into the algorithm.
And if you’re wondering if your videos aren’t getting a lot of views because the CCP is
suppressing you, it could be.
Or more likely,
no one wants to see you twerk at an Arby’s.
There have been a slow drizzle of reports about how TikTok has carried tons of Russian
propaganda,
Pushed divisive videos by Chinese state media about US politicians,
and promoted suicide to teens.
It’s like they saw 13 Reasons Why and thought, “We can give them *way* more reasons than
that!”
Promoting good content isn’t just an issue facing TikTok.
All the big social media companies struggle with this.
But when you know a Chinese company is behind it, it really makes you wonder how much of
this has just flown under the radar, and how much is intentional.
And given China’s spy balloons, they’re not really great at having things fly under
the radar.
It’s especially an issue because more and more Americans are getting their news from
TikTok.
It would be easy for TikTok to downplay news that Beijing didn’t like, while promoting
news and opinions that it did.
So I’m not saying that we shouldn’t ban TikTok or it shouldn’t be sold to a US-based
company--I think that’s long overdue.
But just banning or selling it is only a first step.
Congress needs to pass legislation that would ban other Chinese apps.
Like ByteDance’s other app CapCut, which is signing on new users even faster than TikTok.
Once a Chinese company gets your data, there’s no telling what it or the Chinese Communist
Party will do with it, and the best way to protect against that is to not give them any
data in the first place.
That’s why Congress also needs to keep data brokers from selling US user data in the first
place.
Which I’m sure Congress will do, just as soon as it can come up with a good acronym
for the bill.
Seriously.
Just hire me.
And remember, China Uncensored is able to keep making videos like this because of viewers
like you.
And as a thank you to the viewers who support China Uncensored through the crowdfunding
website Patreon or the exclusive social media platform Locals, I’ll answer one of their
questions.
Today’s question comes from:
Ringleader on Patreon, who asks: Hey Chris: When Russia's military fully collapses as
well as Putin's government, do you think the CCP might try to take some of Russia's territory
and holdings like the city of Vladivostok?
Well Ringleader, if that were to happen, I think a lot depends on what type of government
replaces Putin.
If it’s a government that’s friendly to the CCP, I don’t think the CCP would try
to take Russian territory.
Conquering and administering a territory is a pain in the butt.
It’s much easier to just loan the new Russian government lots of money to rebuild after
the war.
Money that they have to spend hiring Chinese companies and workers to move in and rebuild
for them.
And if Russia can’t pay those loans back, then maybe China will take a port or two as
compensation.
So much easier than invading.
What I’m saying, Ringleader, is that the CCP is much more likely to make an economically
and politically weak Russia into a tribute state to China.
In fact, they’re already starting to do that.
Thanks for your question and your support.
And thank you for watching.
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Once again, I’m Chris Chappell.
See you next time.