Chinese-owned TikTok just announced it would provide access “to authoritative information” to “counter election misinformation” with the roll-out of its Election Center. Oh Goody!! Just like Twitter, they are approaching upcoming elections “with the utmost seriousness.” The move to control disseminate information on elections almost identically mirrors Twitter’s recent announcement of its “civic integrity” program. They are even partnering with the National Association of the Secretaries of State (NASS).
Chinese Communist Party-linked TikTok launched an in-app Elections Center in the lead-up to the 2022 U.S. midterm elections.
This sounds like foreign interference in our elections.t.co/b0vc8nKgHL
— Free Speech America (@FreeSpeechAmer) August 18, 2022
TikTok is a National Security Threat
A September 25, 2020 filing by the Trump administration DOJ lays out “factual background on the PRC, ByteDance, and TikTok.”
Trump administration DOJ Memorandum
The app is a voracious collector of personal data, with much of it allegedly traveling to China. Remember when DNI Ratcliffe, on his way out in December 2020, warned of “China’s threat to America’s democracy and freedom worldwide?” Well, in August of 2020, President Trump’s Executive Order (EO) 13942 referenced the threat. He also referenced the “information and communications technology and services supply chain” found in Executive Order 13873 to address the “threat posed by TikTok.” As explained in the EO, the concerns were grave enough to “ban the use of TikTok on Federal Government phones.”