To be or not to be, that is the question for social media giant TikTok’s future in the United States.
The fate of the Chinese Communist Party-controlled app is one of very few issues that seem to divide Americans on both sides of our most fundamental ideological divides, which is roughly to say, pro-Donald Trump and anti-Donald Trump.
This is a pretty good sign that there are legitimate competing interests for axing the app and letting it flourish in the U.S. Those in favor of the short-video platform see themselves as champions of free speech; those opposed as guardians of national security. Both may have a point.
For the decision on TikTok to be thoughtfully and honestly reached, it must be fully understood and acknowledged just how much damage this Chinese spying and propaganda operation has already wrought.
The fact that Chinese owner ByteDance is refusing to sell TikTok is kind of confirmation that it was a CCP operation all along. It wasn’t launched by a Chinese entrepreneur looking to make money, or he would jump at a $50 billion dollar offer – especially when it is either that or go dark in the United States.
No, the real value of TikTok for the CCP was always as an informational attack on the U.S. intended to steal our private data, including that of millions of our children, and to promote anti-American ideology. Remember the ‘Osama Bin Laden wasn’t so bad’ TikTok craze?
Information is serious national security business. According to the Defense Department, America’s levers of international power are described by the DIME paradigm as Diplomatic, Informational, Military, and Economic.
In three of these, the U.S. is dominant. But, owing to our First Amendment and the free nature of our society, we are always at a disadvantage against our authoritarian foreign foes when it comes to the use of information as a weapon.
This is not a two-way social media street with China. As Elon Musk, owner of the competitor platform X noted this week, ‘The current situation where TikTok is allowed to operate in America, but X is not allowed to operate in China is unbalanced. Something needs to change.’
Nobody should hold their breath waiting for China to liberalize its internal social media censorship, but Musk’s point is well taken. This is asymmetrical informational warfare.
All of this is why the ban on TikTok, should Bytedance continue its refusal to divest, was passed by a big bipartisan majority and why Trump was on board at that time. Now, with TikTok choosing to go dark on Sunday in the U.S., the rubber has met the road.
Sure, there are plenty of Americans who use TikTok in completely non-nefarious ways to run their business, keep up on hobbies, or just to be mindlessly entertained, and they understandably don’t want it to disappear.
For his part, Trump has come to believe that TikTok played a significant role in securing his election win. There isn’t a whole lot of hard evidence to back this up, but there are those in Trump’s inner circle, such as Kellyanne Conway, who have lobbied for TikTok in Congress.
If Trump can strike a deal that saves TikTok in America by eliminating the national security threat it poses, then great. That would be a double win. But while these competing interests are both legitimate, they are not equal, and our country’s defense must clearly come first.
For his part, Trump seems to understand this, posting on Truth Social on Sunday that he wants the ‘United States to have a 50% ownership position in a joint venture. By doing this, we save TikTok, keep it in good hands and allow it to stay up. Without U.S. approval, there is no TikTok.’
Deal or no deal, whether TikTok survives or not, you have to tip your cap to Communist China for one of the most effective information operations ever executed against the United States. Endless bytes of data stolen, millions of hours of propaganda poured into the eyes and ears of our kids.
It took our government years to understand what TikTok was really doing, longer to act, and now, even after it has decisively acted, we just can’t seem to pull the plug on the listening device. And one potential solution is to give China upwards of $50 billion for its trouble.
Trump wants 90 days to make a deal, and nobody does it better. But after that, either the CCP is out of the TikTok business or TikTok must be out of the U.S. There really is no third option.