My daughter is devastated and thinks that this may cost Trump the election. Must admit I Have never understood the attraction of the app. Though I keep getting sent examples. There are two main issues here though:
1) Is he correct that this is actually a piece of Chinese spyware? As far as I can see the app itself does not ask for much personal information for its accounts. So is he saying that there is some kind of hidden surveillance code in the app which is taking peoples location, contact info and activity logs and uploading them to servers in China. For this to be proven we would probably need either a Chinese defector, a TikTok employee complicit in such transfers or someone from deep within the American intelligence network to show us how. Since I am not sure this information is ever going to be made available we just do not know.
2) If we do not know and no evidence is going to be provided to justify this ban then is it constitutional to remove the only piece of non American social media software to give Facebook, Twitter, Google and Instagram a run for their money from the American market. It does sound almost Chinese in style doesn't it. Remove the competition to allow the local companies to thrive.
