Eric-Woods Erickson
A note from me: I know some of you are tired of me beating this drum incessantly this week, but I really do think it is that important of an issue. Below is my national newspaper column for the week on the issue. I’ll move on to something else now. But this really is a huge deal.
TikTok is an app for sharing short videos that keep people entertained. It is how more and more Gen Z kids get their news and information. It is also a massive Chinese surveillance application. Though TikTok claims to be headquartered in Singapore, its parent company, ByteDance, is a Chinese company ultimately controlled by the Chinese Communist Party.
ByteDance has given the Chinese government access to its servers and systems. It has shared its algorithm with the Chinese government and has, in at least one documented case, allowed the Chinese government to spy on journalists through its system. ByteDance has also structured TikTok to share disinformation and propaganda. The Wall Street Journal recently reported one data scientist found TikTok showed pro-Palestinian videos to its audience at a rate of 69 for every 1 pro-Israel video. TikTok has also notoriously been a platform used to indoctrinate kids into transgenderism.
A bipartisan movement in Congress has advanced legislation that would force ByteDance to sell its interests in TikTok. The well crafted legislation would not impact the freedom of speech of TikTok’s users. What it would do is force China to give up control of TikTok. Some liars and some propagandists claim the government would also use the legislation to punish Twitter. But the legislation very carefully and clearly only applies to apps and websites whose server content is controlled by Russia, China, North Korea, or Iran. As long as those entities do not control Twitter’s servers, it has nothing to worry about. Anyone claiming otherwise is simply wrong or lying.
Some on the right who have screamed about TikTok and its use as a progressive indoctrination platform have now changed their minds because Donald Trump, the man who first called for TikTok to be sold, changed his. Trump changed his mind because he thinks the legislation might help Meta, a company he hates. Likewise, an American investor in ByteDance has been throwing money at Republicans in Trump’s orbit.
Notably, several members of Congress have pushed the talking point that the legislation against TikTok would be used to punish other websites and social media platforms. Almost every one of these members has received donations from Jeff Yass, the billionaire American who has invested in ByteDance. Yass is also a donor to the Club for Growth, which has decided to oppose the legislation.
The latest talking point is that Congress has not passed legislation restricting Chinese purchase of American land, so why should anyone support this? If you want Congress to take action against China, shutting down its mass surveillance system of 170 million Americans seems like the best place to start. We can then get to the land.
Then there are the members of the nihilist right who have decided that because progressives control Washington and might spy on the right, we should do nothing about Chinese spying. This is the argument of those who need to touch some grass.
The federal government spying on Americans is an issue. Other social media platforms spying on Americans is an issue. But neither the federal government nor other social media platforms are controlled by a nuclear power that wants to destroy the United States. TikTok is. TikTok is in a category by itself. The legislation that is now in the Senate focuses on that category — an app controlled by the Chinese communist party that has already been showed to be used for nefarious purposes.
Rightwing nihilists twisted by the culture war, like many leftwing nihilists, have lost the ability to recognize that a political enemy in this country really is nothing compared to a giant nuclear power enemy that wants to take our nation’s place on the world stage. These are serious times and too many unserious Twitter famous people just want to watch the world burn for their own entertainment.
Cato the Elder would end each of his speeches in the Senate of the Roman Republic with “Carthago delenda est,” or Carthage must be destroyed. The legislation pending would not destroy TikTok, but would force China to give up control of the platform. Notwithstanding the same, TikTok delenda est.
