Prevarication: Part of the Global Game?
November 11, 2021
TikTok is owned by Chinese company ByteDance. China is infamous for its Big Brother tactics on its citizens and enemies. It is reasonable to assume China is using TikTok to spy on Americans. Gadgets 360 reports, “TikTok Tells US Lawmakers It Does Not Give Information To China’s Government.” Michael Beckerman is TikTok’s executive of public policy for North and South America. He assured the US Congress the video sharing platform safeguards US data.
Congressmen from the Republican and Democratic parties are concerned about TikTok’s influence in the US and what data is potentially fed to China. Republicans pressured Beckerman for more information about user data than the Democrats. Both parties are worried how TikTok encourages negative and harmful behavior in young people:
“Executives from YouTube and Snapchat also testified. In a show of bipartisanship, senators of both parties, including Democratic panel chairman Richard Blumenthal, accused the three companies of exposing young people to bullying and sometimes steering them to information that encouraged harmful behaviors such sexualized games or anorexia. The executives responded that their companies have sought to create a fun experience and to exclude dangerous or unsavory content.”
Former President Donald Trump sought to ban TikTok in the US, because he believed it collected data on US citizens that was shared with China. Trump said this was a threat to the US’s safety. Current President Joe Biden rescinded the proposed ban, but he did seek to review foreign-controlled apps.
Does anyone truly believe TikTok? If the company succeeds in converting short videos into a super app, what’s going on behind the digital smokescreen?
Whitney Grace, November 11, 2021
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