TikTok is a ‘propaganda and misinformation tool’ to influence Americans by ‘pushing specific CCP-chosen content while hiding its source,’ experts say.
In their filing, the former officials, including former attorneys general and intelligence executives, said that TikTok poses a “serious and unique” national security threat to the United States.
However, the former officials, who mainly worked under Republican administrations, said that TikTok data is not the only data set the CCP can exploit.
Major CCP-coordinated hacks have obtained data from hundreds of millions of Americans.
“The CCP can exploit this massive trove of sensitive data to power sophisticated artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities that can then be used to identify Americans for intelligence collection, to conduct advanced electronic and human intelligence operations, and may even be weaponized to undermine the political and economic stability of the United States and our allies,” the experts said in their amicus brief.
“The combined national security impact of these hacks—when added to the sensitive social networking, location, and behavioral information on 170 million Americans available to the Chinese government through its direct access to TikTok data—is thus nearly impossible to overstate,” the experts added.
TikTok has repeatedly maintained that it is independent from its Chinese parent company. According to TikTok, its U.S. customer data are stored in Virginia and backed up in Singapore, and it has never, and will never, share its U.S. data with the Chinese regime.
However, Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.), chair of the Intelligence Select Committee, said during an April Senate floor debate that the project “does not resolve the United States national security concern about ByteDance’s ownership of TikTok” because it would “still allow TikTok’s algorithm, source code, and development activities to remain in China” and “under ByteDance control and subject to the Chinese government’s exploitation.”
The experts who filed the amicus brief hold the same view.
“In sum, after months of digging deep into TikTok and its operations, it was clear to key Congressional leaders that TikTok fundamentally functions as an arm of the CCP in both promoting and censoring data in the interests of the CCP,” they stated.
“And because TikTok fails to meaningfully address the national security concerns, Congress was forced to step in and take action.”
In addition to data risks, the amicus brief filers also identified TikTok as a “propaganda and misinformation tool” for the CCP to influence American users by “pushing specific CCP-chosen content while hiding its source.” According to them, the content selection and video recommendation algorithm could both be used to shape American users’ views on issues.
On June 25, a group of nonprofit organizations filed an amicus brief supporting TikTok’s First Amendment argument.