The justification for the TikTok ban is that it supposedly collects a ton of data.
TikTok’s data collection practices are insane. The app gather data that other apps normally consider off limits, including the content of users’ private messages, and the full contents of a user’s device contacts.
I agree, this is insane. But it isn’t unusual, and it isn’t even the worst in class.
That’s a lot of data – but it’s worth noting that TikTok does not seem to collect more data than other social media companies. A privacy researcher working with the Washington Post found that TikTok gathers less data than Facebook in some cases.
So it’s obviously not about data collection. As for sharing with the Chinese government, well, Google sells user data to the Chinese thru third parties.
Perhaps it has something to do with TikTok users being against genocide?
But most revealing of all is that Biden and Trump are both trying to avoid a TikTok shutdown. See, what Congress wants is the Chinese parent company to sell TikTok to an American. But TikTok has refused and has said it will shut down on the 19th.
And here Biden is saying he won’t enforce the shutdown, and Trump saying he wants to find a solution.
It’s a shakedown.
Whatever it is, it isn’t because Congress has suddenly decided to crack down on apps collecting too much user data.