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By Shane Croucher
Senior Editor
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The battle between the U.S. government and China's ByteDance over the latter's ownership of the video-sharing platform TikTok is finally coming to a head.
The Department of Justice asked the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia on December 11 to reject ByteDance's latest attempt to block a law that will force it to divest from TikTok or face a ban in January 2025.
TikTok is hugely popular with Americans, especially those who are younger. In January 2024, TikTok CEO Shou Chew claimed it had over 170 million active users in the U.S.
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The U.S. is concerned that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), which rules China and is actively involved in businesses seen as strategically significant, would use TikTok as a kind of Trojan Horse to undermine American national security.
ByteDance denies accusations that it takes direction from the Chinese government, or that it shares internally held data with it, and argues that TikTok operates as a standalone entity in the U.S. already.
The divest-or-ban law that threatens ByteDance's ownership of TikTok may yet end up in the Supreme Court. But is TikTok really a national security threat to the U.S.? Newsweek put the question to the experts. This is what they said.
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Adam Segal, Ira A. Lipman Chair in Emerging Technologies; Director, Digital and Cyberspace Policy Program, Council on Foreign Relations
While the cybersecurity risks of TikTok have been overstated—the PRC can access information about U.S. citizens by other means and targets high level officials through sophisticated hacks—the app presents some risk of being exploited by malicious foreign actors to spread disinformation and promote Chinese propaganda.
This is true of American-owned social media apps as well, as they have reduced their trust and safety teams and limited the visibility of outside researchers.
Still, TikTok's sometime contradictory statements about who has access to its algorithms and the relationship with its Chinese owner ByteDance raises additional concerns.
Lindsay Gorman, Managing Director and Senior Fellow, German Marshall Fund's Technology Program
The threat of TikTok is its PRC-based ownership. One concern is the ability for reams of data on American users to wind up in the hands of the CCP, as Chinese companies are required to do if asked.
Second, is the potential for weaponized influence. Social media platforms are modern-day radio and TV stations, but instead of producers, opaque algorithms select the content shown to users.
Foreign powers including China and Russia weaponize these platforms to promote propaganda and stoke divisions within democracies. Allowing an entity accountable to the CCP to decide who is shown what content and when is the height of folly.
It would be too easy for China to insist TikTok promote content against the U.S. and demote content involving topics it doesn't like, such as Taiwan or Xinjiang. And too hard for us as observers to tell it's happening.
TikTok needs to be sold.
Susan Landau, Professor of Cyber Security and Policy, Department of Computer Science, Tufts University
China doesn't need TikTok to get private data on Americans; the online ad industry that targets ads to individuals makes doing so remarkably easy.
Ad profiling means that consumers are tracked from the moment they pick up their mobile device in the morning until they lay down the device at night.
Data collected from user smartphones and apps tracks where individuals go, whom they are with, and what they are doing. The data is then shared with a vast array of data brokers.
People's most private information—their relationships, their locations, and their activities and interests—can be easily discerned from these profiles.
While TikTok's consumer data can be easily shared with China, even without such access, U.S. adversaries can create front companies in friendly nations—and simply buy the data, like thousands of others do.
The privacy risks to individuals and the security risks to the U.S. are enormous.
James Andrew Lewis, Senior Vice President, Pritzker Chair, and Director, Strategic Technologies Program, Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS)
Probably not and certainly not by itself, but China is a threat and it's collecting data on Americans as fast as it can and is trying to influence our politics through social media. If TikTok was Swedish no one would care.
The question isn't do you trust TikTok, but do you trust Xi Jinping—and the answer has to be no.
Ashley Keller Nelson, Senior Professor of Practice, AB Freeman School of Business, Tulane University
Depends on whom you ask. Gen Z, the highest user group, would mostly say no. If you speak with Gen X or older, you will get a higher yes response.
Data privacy is the greatest concern for older adults because of China's ByteDance ownership of TikTok and its ability to share personal data with the Chinese government.
TikTok collects extensive data from users, and most cybersecurity experts have warned that this leaves Americans vulnerable to our data being weaponized against us.
If you ask those in law enforcement and government, you will have a higher positive response rate. Under Project Texas, the U.S. government and third-party companies like Oracle would oversee TikTok's data practices.
Project Clover is a similar plan for the European Union, where TikTok moves European users' data to dedicated centers in Europe. If these two projects come to completion, many security fears will be eliminated globally.
I deleted my TikTok account in 2023 because of data privacy concerns. Let's see which parts you are OK with to decide if TikTok is a security risk.
According to TikTok, its data collection methods provide access to most content on mobile devices—OK.
The company collects sensitive data about users even when they don't save or share content—hmm.
TikTok's privacy policy also says the company collects your email address, phone number, age, search, and browsing history information about what's in your uploaded photos and videos, and if you consent, the contents of your device's clipboard so that you can copy and paste information into the app—this has my attention.
My concern would be the last one because of how deep the intrusion goes into my personal data on my phone.
Most do not know that China's and the U.S.'s TikTok platforms are not the same, not even close. The Chinese restrict the number of hours its users can view TikTok, and their platform is geared toward education and national pride.
Some feel China could use TikTok to manipulate major global and U.S. events.
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