Thursday’s congressional hearing on the supposedly unique dangers posed by TikTok confirmed one thing for me: Many lawmakers are in over their heads when it comes to tackling social media’s nefarious influence overall.
Lawmakers seemed to largely rely on anti-Chinese bigotry to suggest TikTok, owned by Chinese tech giant ByteDance, poses a unique danger to U.S. national security. In reality, virtually all social networks are susceptible to nefarious foreign manipulation.
This doesn’t mean TikTok should elude criticism. After all, the Chinese government has a long history of shady surveillance practices. And though TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew denied that Bytedance is “an agent of China,” the Chinese government has broad access to data collected by private companies in its country.
But we should be deeply suspicious as to why U.S. lawmakers are laser-focused on TikTok when platforms like Facebook, Instagram and Twitter have been manipulated by countries, including China, to influence Americans.
Chew made a similar argument in his opening statement testifying before the House on Thursday.
“The potential security, privacy, content manipulation concerns raised about TikTok are really not unique to us,” Chew said. “The same issues apply to other companies. We believe what’s needed are clear, transparent rules that apply broadly to all tech companies. Ownership is not at the core of addressing these concerns.”
But Republican Cathy McMorris Rodgers, who heads the House Energy and Commerce Committee, was intent on keeping the attention on TikTok.
“I want you to say with 100% certainty that neither ByteDance nor TikTok employees can target other Americans with similar surveillance techniques as you did with journalists,” Rodgers said, referring to reports that the Justice Department is investigating allegations that TikTok employees spied on U.S. journalists.
Perhaps unknowingly, Rodgers’ line of questioning supported Chew’s fundamental argument that these alleged…
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