While we as Americans know what our governments plans with tik tok are let’s investigate how this is all impacting and making China feel. China is perceiving the Possible tik tok ban in the United States to be portrayed as an act of bullying. The US China issue at hand is the US is essentially giving the Chinese company an ultimatum, sell the app to a US company or the US will ban the app and its 170 million users will be gone. With the event blowing up over the last few months there have been several instances of government officials admitting that they have no evidence to back up their claims of the app being a national security threat. US spokesperson of Beijing goes on to accuse this insane act as one of a bullying nature do the success this company has achieve through the app rather than US owned apps. The house vote to ban tik tok rests on a 2/3 majority vote which is predicting to be the result as many officials seem to have jumped on the bandwagon of throwing shade towards the app simply because of how profitable it has become and who owns the app. In summary it seems the US is likely influenced through the leading political figures “feelings” toward the Chinese Communist Party and not the app itself given that the US is pulling every strong it can to snatch the app out from under the Chinese owner ByteDance.
https://www.cnn.com/2024/03/13/business/china-tiktok-ban-bullying-congress-vote-intl-hnk/index.html
My Take:
This whole ordeal between Tik Tok and the US government is seeming to show its true colors the more and more our government attempts to act on the "issue" at hand. It showing to be a classic feeling of being jealous (much like a little child). The US hates that this Chinese owned app is blowing up and being successful as well as helping to boost them economically. So, instead of working on releasing new apps the US is creating made up excuses in hope of being able to buy the app and take the credit from there. It is both an insult to our country as well as to the citizens who rely on the app to have their voices be heard world wide that they would other wise not be able to do from speaking on politics to environmental issues. Tik Tok has done nothing up influence its users in a positive manner as well as benefit American politics.
My Question to You:
As more and more stories are being published regarding the US government and Tik Tok in your option what kind of picture do you see the US government painting of themselves through these actions?
I remember when government officials first sound the alarm concerning TikTok. For example, in April 2023, John F. Plumb describes TikTok as a "potential threat vector". The fact that Plumb is the assistant secretary of defense for space policy and principal cyber advisor to the secretary of defense, give the accusation credibility. The crux of Plumb's argument is that many Americans use TikTok, and China may be able to circulate misinformation though it. Moreover, China may be able to collect data from it. If Plumb's argument holds true, then TikTok is a potential national security threat. If not, then there is no valid reason for the government to ban the social media platform. Either way, it will be interesting to see how this plays out in congress.
ReplyDeleteU.S. Department of Defense: https://www.defense.gov/News/News-Stories/Article/Article/3354874/leaders-say-tiktok-is-potential-cybersecurity-risk-to-us/.