Is TikTok spying for China?

Western fears that the video platform harvests user data and promotes Beijing’s worldview could lead to a n overhaul of global privacy laws

- Laurie Clarke

The FBI has called it a national security threat. The US government has passed a law forcing officials to delete it from their phones. Texas senator Ted Cruz has denounced it as “a Trojan horse the Chinese Communist party can use to influence what Americans see, hear, and ultimately think ”. And in March its CEO will defend its existence before the US Congress. The target of this strong rhetoric might prove surprising to some: an app best known for viral dances, launching generation Z media stars, and sucking teens down an hours-long content abyss.

In addition, at least 27 US states have blocked TikTok on devices they’ve issued, affecting state schools and universities, too. A bipartisan bill, introduced in Congress last December, stipulates banning the app’s use by everyone in the country.

TikTok scepticism is spreading to Europe too. Some politicians contend it could potentially hand user data to Chinese authorities, and/or be wielded as a propaganda tool – subtly influencing TikTok’s 1 billion monthly active users in a direction that dovetails with Chinese foreign policy goals.

In the age of the “splinternet” – which has seen the once-open web fracturing across different jurisdictions – anxieties over data sovereignty and information flows are on the rise.

The app’s claims over its trustworthiness took a blow in December with the revelation that employees at Byte Dance (TikTok’s parent company ) accessed TikTok data in an attempt to track the whereabouts of several western journalists in order to discover their sources within the company.