“Is it really important for the President of the United States, Donald Trump, to engage with Gen Z who watches silly and bizarre videos on TikTok? This comes as TikTok’s views soared to billions, with the U.S. attempting to ban the platform.
Trump, who has been vocal about wanting to ban TikTok, has faced support from many American lawyers who see TikTok as a national security threat. Government agencies and the military have issued orders prohibiting individuals within their organizations from downloading the app on their work phones since Trump’s first term.
Last year, Congress passed a law with bipartisan support requiring ByteDance, TikTok’s parent company, to sell its operations to a non-Chinese owner, or face a ban. The Supreme Court upheld this law based on national security concerns.
However, privacy and technology experts argue that acquiring TikTok’s operations does not fully address the issue of protecting American user data from China. China still has other ways to access American user data.
Furthermore, social media platforms and other websites also collect similar data like TikTok, including app usage, search history, and purchase history. Many websites sell this data to advertisers.
U.S. lawyers are not only concerned about Chinese data collection but also about the potential for ByteDance to manipulate TikTok’s algorithms to spread Chinese propaganda or misinformation, or sow division among Americans.
Trump’s changing stance on TikTok raises questions about his decreasing concern for national security threats. Trump replies that he now needs to use TikTok.
The director of a technology policy institute at a university views this change in perspective as China having less influence than five years ago. China’s economy is not as strong, it has less global voice, and less international influence.
However, selling TikTok’s operations to the U.S., partially or entirely, does not guarantee that China will no longer have control or influence in the future because the technology originates from China.
Source: CNN
TLDR: President Trump’s shifting stance on TikTok highlights concerns about national security, privacy issues, and potential Chinese influence, despite efforts to address the situation through acquisitions.”
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