Welcome back to China Uncensored.
I’m Chris Chappell.
This episode has been sponsored by Surfshark.
Protect your privacy online.
Now, my team of high-powered market researchers
has told me I need to make China Uncensored
more appealing to Generation Z.
And that’s why I joined “The Tick Tock.”
It’s just “TikTok.”
Fine. “TikTok.”
TikTok has 500 million active users worldwide,
including pretty much everyone under 25.
It’s...fire.
Who are you? How did you even get in here?
Look. I get that Tik Tok is the coolest new app.
Or littest. Or most Gucci, fam.
I hate myself right now.
But the biggest problem,
other than my own looming mortality,
is that TikTok is owned by a Chinese company.
Back in 2017, a Chinese company called ByteDance
bought the social media app Musical.ly
for close to one billion dollars.
Musical.ly was based in Shanghai,
but had its most users in the US,
where it caught on with American teens.
Then they merged Musical.ly’s userbase into TikTok,
and that allowed them to slide TikTok into the US market.
Now, you might think,
“So what if TikTok is owned by a Chinese company?”
Well, if you’re worried about “FBI Man” watching you...
...you should be way more concerned about “MSS Man” watching you.
MSS is China’s Ministry of State Security.
They’re seriously scary dudes.
Or whatever zoomers call dudes these days.
And China has very different laws about data privacy.
Namely, in China, there’s no privacy.
Chinese law says Chinese companies that collect user data
have to share that data with the Chinese government upon request.
It’s not that Chinese authorities actively monitor every user’s data in real time,
but “The reality is that if and when Beijing makes a demand,
it is hard for Chinese-based companies to say no.”
And that’s why it might be concerning that a Chinese company—
ByteDance—owns TikTok,
since TikTok collects so much user data.
That data includes your username,
what you like, where you are in the world,
what’s being recorded by your
camera and microphone, et cetera.
And it’s not just *me speculating* about security risks.
The US government has just opened a national security investigation into TikTok.
The investigation is led by CFIUS—
the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States.
CFIUS is an interdepartmental group of federal government agencies.
It investigates—and sometimes blocks—
deals by foreign companies that might pose a risk to US national security.
For example, last year CFIUS blocked Chinese-owned Ant Financial
from buying financial services company MoneyGram.
CFIUS also blocked IDG Energy Investment
from buying a bunch of oil and gas assets in Texas.
And now CFIUS is forcing a Chinese company to sell Grindr,
a gay dating app.
Chinese gaming company Kunlun Tech had purchased Grindr last year,
without going through a CFIUS review.
CFIUS didn’t disclose specifically why the Chinese buyout of Grindr
was a national security concern.
But I can just imagine what would happen
if the Chinese intelligence service
knew private information about Americans—
like who’s gay, who’s HIV-positive,
and had access to the, um, “pics” that may *occasionally*
get sent by men using the Grindr app.
Imagine all the blackmail opportunities.
Anyway, back to TikTok.
Earlier this year,
there were also some concerns about TikTok’s censorship.
It came after the Guardian got its hands
on TikTok’s content moderation policy.
It showed TikTok had been censoring content
that was embarrassing to the Chinese regime.
For example, there were reports that videos about
the Hong Kong protests were being either blocked completely,
or quietly labeled as “visible to self”,
so other users couldn’t see them.
And this applied to the American app TikTok,
not the Chinese version,
which goes by a different name.
But it seems that since May this year,
TikTok has changed its policies to distance itself from Beijing.
TikTok now claims that it not censor content....
...while also not specifically admitting that they ever did.
In an official statement, TikTok said,
“[Their] data centers are located entirely outside of China,
and none of [their] data is subject to Chinese law.”
They also said, “[they] have never been asked
by the Chinese government to remove any content
and [they] would not do so if asked.”
Which is funny, because ByteDance,
the company that owns TikTok,
is completely governed by Chinese law.
That means the Chinese government could in theory
require ByteDance to require TikTok to give up user information.
Which means TikTok would give it to ByteDance,
which would give it to the Chinese government.
But I see no reason why the US government
should ban a Chinese-owned social media app.
Even though the *Chinese* government bans
pretty much all *American* social media apps,
like Twitter and Facebook.
But still, CFIUS is investigating TikTok
as a potential a national security risk.
CFIUS just won’t reveal why,
since they “[do not] comment on information relating to specific...cases.”
There are few things that could happen after this review process.
CFIUS could decide TikTok is a risk,
and ban it outright. That’s unlikely.
CFIUS could decide that TikTok’s owner,
Bytedance, needs to sell off TikTok to an American company.
That’s what happened with Grindr—
although the difference is that TikTok
wasn’t an American company to begin with.
Or CFIUS could decide there’s no problem.
And then TikTok would be free to do...
whatever TikTok does.
Because frankly, I still don’t get the appeal.
What are you still doing here?!
Anyway, this episode has been sponsored by Surfshark.
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Once again, I’m Chris Chappell.
See you next time.