Is TikTok a National Security Risk?

The Chinese Communist Party maintains power by controlling the flow of information and strong-arming Chinese companies into doing its bidding. So why is the U.S. allowing TikTok, a Chinese-owned company, to gather data on tens of millions of Americans’ habits, interests and the content that they are receptive to? This is reckless to the point of creating a national-security threat. The Communist Party could enact one of its signature propaganda campaigns and force TikTok to influence the content that users see and don’t see. This could well be happening already—there is no way for us to know.

Love it or hate it,

Meta

has created an alternative to TikTok that scratches the same itch, without being subject to Chinese oversight. The American government should back an American business, over which it has some oversight, instead of a Chinese business over which it has little to none.

—Devin Bresser, University of Wisconsin-Madison, electrical engineering

TikTok Is No Riskier Than

The American government should not ban TikTok. The social-media app is one of the largest platforms for videos in the U.S., with hundreds of millions of users, and enormous ad revenue ($5.96 billion in the U.S. in 2022). TikTok cannot be replicated in a short time. Users trying out alternatives to TikTok would probably drift back, making a ban on TikTok nonsensical.

The security of data collection is a genuine problem. TikTok is a Chinese company, and it is risky for the U.S. to let it collect and analyze personal data that it may deliver to the Chinese government. But these same risks occur with any Chinese product, including Chinese-made components for Apple devices. But almost no government has banned the use of Apple. So why ban TikTok?

—Xiaoyu Jia, New York University, management and systems

Protect the Kids

Most arguments for banning TikTok point out that the social-media app can be exploited for surveillance of Americans by the Chinese government. That may be true, but what is certainly true is that TikTok use has terrible consequences for young people. It damages their physical and mental health and wastes their time. These are the primary reasons TikTok should be banned.

TikTok is addictive because of its videos. These are short bursts of funny, satisfying, feel-good content, usually with no intellectual value. Each video watched gives the user a dose of dopamine. Again, and again, and again: It’s like repeatedly taking a hit of a mental drug.

And so teens spend hours on TikTok: barely moving, barely thinking, barely doing anything except consuming hours of juvenile content. This isn’t a good use of anybody’s time. It engenders sloth, brings down attention spans and creates arthritic problems. TikTok on a phone can be taken to bed, the bathroom, the classroom and everywhere. Its harms are 24/7.

TikTok is making our youth so dull that they aren’t worth surveilling.

—Arjun Singh, The George Washington University, law school

India Banned It. Why Can’t America?

There are few legitimate reasons to impose sanctions on companies, but national security is among them. While the free market addresses most concerns, the government needs to step in when a company collaborates with authorities in hostile nations. This is the case with TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance: a Beijing-based tech company that consistently has succumbed to the demands of the ruling authoritarian Communist Party of China.

Banning TikTok does not infringe on our freedom of speech, nor does it inhibit economic development by interfering with free enterprise. Those who like to browse videos have plenty of nonsubversive alternatives to choose from. The U.S. should join India, a key ally against Chinese aggression, in banning TikTok entirely.

—Rafael Arbex-Murut, University of California, Berkeley, information and data science

Malicious Meddling

If the Chinese Communist Party planted 80 million cameras on street corners across America, there would be outrage. China has managed to do something similar with TikTok. Users grant TikTok permission to track keystrokes, pattern of life, contacts, geo-position, individual networks and online viewing.

Chinese cybersecurity law makes all TikTok’s data free-flowing to the government, and Beijing uses this metadata to improve its artificial-intelligence programs. These AI programs will soon be used against America for mass influence campaigns, manipulation and blackmail. With enough data, China could launch an online influence operation that could flip a presidential election.

It’s not just a security risk. How often have you been out for dinner and seen an entire family on their smartphones? The addictive algorithms, targeting advertising and technological globalization of social-media platforms makes children—particularly young girls—increasingly depressed and suicidal.

Protect children. Ban TikTok. Punish big tech.

—Chanidu Gamage, The University of British Columbia, political science

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