Congress’ China Obsession Obscures Tiktok’s Larger Dangers

The House of Representatives’ bipartisan passage of an act that would ban TikTok unless its Chinese owner, ByteDance, sells the company within six months is another testament to the power of invoking the word “China” to get American legislation passed.

The Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act follows years-long suspicions about the app, popularized by Donald Trump’s 2020 attempt to ban it. These suspicions have been fueled nearly entirely by TikTok’s Chinese ownership, which may in practice be one of its least troubling characteristics—that is, if it is being assessed on the basis of American users’ rights and protections.

Read the whole article via Forbes here.