In the summer of 2020, amid heavy lockdowns all over the world, Donald Trump used his executive powers to ban Chinese video sharing app TikTok. The former president demanded that ByteDance – the company behind the platform – sell it to American ownership or else face prohibition. Messaging platform WeChat also followed suit and suffered the same fate as TikTok.
In an interview with Fox Business back in September 2020, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross praised then-incumbent president Donald Trump for his decisive actions.
“Today’s actions prove once again that President Trump will do everything in his power to guarantee our national security and protect Americans from the threats of the Chinese Communist Party,” Ross stated.
“At the President’s direction, we have taken significant action to combat China’s malicious collection of American citizens’ personal data, while promoting our national values, democratic rules-based norms, and aggressive enforcement of U.S. laws and regulations,” Ross added.
TikTok currently has almost 700 million users and has surpassed the 2 billion downloads mark. However, they have been scrutinized by governments around the world and suspected ByteDance for not doing enough to safeguard the data of their users against the communist state of China.
Almost a year later and the social media platform will be back on American soil once again, mining our data for the CCP to analyze and exploit later on. Recently, new president Joe Biden has lifted the ban on TikTok, along with messaging application WeChat.
Even after revoking the ban, Biden still admits the risks that come with downloading and using TikTok and WeChat.
“Foreign adversary, defined to include the People’s Republic of China, through apps on personal electronic devices like smartphones and tablets, presents a significant risk,” said Biden in his official statement.
“The Federal Government should evaluate these threats through rigorous, evidence-based analysis and should address any unacceptable or undue risks consistent with overall national security, foreign policy, and economic objectives, including the preservation and demonstration of America’s core values and fundamental freedoms,” Biden said.
“Certain countries, including the People’s Republic of China (PRC), do not share these values and seek to leverage digital technologies and Americans’ data in ways that present unacceptable national security risks while advancing authoritarian controls and interests,” Biden added.
Republican governor of Texas Greg Abbott has recently divulged to the public how illegal immigration rings in the U.S.-Mexico border, are using TikTok to recruit people to help them in their human smuggling activities.
“A concern that we have is how brazen and open the drug cartels are getting in trying to recruit people here in the state of Texas to assist them in these crimes,” Abbott revealed.
“These are two pictures from TikTok and these are ads or videos, things that are being run by cartels on TikTok, trying to recruit people in Texas to assist them commit their crimes, with the promise of money as well as other things,” Abbott added.