Make no mistake, Chinese businesses are controlled by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Consequently, when the CCP directs the management of TikTok to provide all of the data it has accumulated on American citizens utilizing its platform, the management must and will comply.
A bipartisan cadre within Congress has reached that conclusion. How often do you see members of Congress of both parties agreeing on something so readily? They all wisely understand that this is a national security threat.
And so did Donald Trump years ago. In fact, one of Trump‘s greatest successes in his first term was warning the American people and American business interests that China is not only our economic adversary, but may soon be a military one as well.
Meanwhile, Joe Biden seemed compromised via his son Hunter’s financial dealings with Chinese companies, and thus the Chinese government, Trump stood out as an America First champion. But suddenly during this past election when it seemed that Congress was on the path toward insisting TikTok ownership divorce from CCP control, Trump threw a curveball by claiming he may oppose such a transfer.
Was there a national security reason? Or even a First Amendment reason? No.
It was purely narcissistic on Trump’s part. It was all about him. He brazenly admits at his press conferences that he’s had a change of heart because TikTok helped him with his ratings among America’s youth.
So even if there’s a threat to the American republic by TikTok garnering our most personal information, Trump is having second thoughts because TikTok boosts his own election prospects and serves as a counterbalance to other media platforms, such as Facebook, which deliberately hurt him in the 2020 election.
The solution here is quite easy. The American public can continue to enjoy a TikTok-like platform, but its ownership simply must divorce from CCP control.
That kind of common sense used to be smack in the middle of Trump‘s wheelhouse. Unfortunately, his Me First attitude is now superseding his America First policy.
Trump can have a non-Chinese government-controlled TikTok to serve as a competitor to Facebook, if he just stays out of it and lets Congress force the sale.