According to Axios, the four most popular apps in America are Chinese–Temu, TikTok, CapCut (an editing tool for TikTok) and SHEIN. Others already in widespread use include Zoom.
This way lies madness. The Chinese are sophisticated enough that they can penetrate the IT system of anyone who downloads one of these apps. TikTok, for example, can see what other applications are in use on a user’s device and tracks users’ geographic presence on an hourly basis. TikTok can even get biometric information and look at the faces of users to determine how they are reacting to content it shows them. All these apps are linked to servers outside the United States.
These are clearly a danger to American national security. India banned all Chinese apps and Internet-related services, which was the smart thing to do. But Americans place a premium on convenience and amusement over their own privacy and national security. The Chinese companies, all under the increasingly heavy thumb of the Chinese Communist Party, can mine the information they glean and create profiles of individuals and their social and professional networks. Chinese law clearly specifies that they must share that information with the Chinese government. They do not recognize the difference between the public and private sectors. All players exist to serve the Party.
One great fear is that these apps will spread disinformation during sensitive moments in America’s fractured political life. TikTok, ironically, is demonstrating what it is capable of. In response to congressional pressure, It is attempting to rally its 150 million users with a video that starts, “Now is the time to fight the ban on TikTok.” If TikTok can overcome Congressional opposition and resist the will of the Biden Administration, think what it could do during a contested presidential election.
It does not hurt that TikTok also is making generous contributions to institutions associated with congress people such as Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who (not surprisingly) has just come out against a TikTok ban. These types of contributions are legal but do we really want Chinese entities to end-run a clear set of national security concerns in Congress and the Administration?
Read more in “Battlefield Cyber: How China and Russia are Undermining Out Democracy and National Security,” seen here on Amazon. Pre-order it!
