Thread by @MatthewFoldi

NEW from me @TheSpectator:

Almost everyone wants to ban @tiktok_us at this point, but what does that mean?

This will be bad news for TikTok influencers like #MIGOV @gretchenwhitmer, @livvydunne, @katiesigmondd, and more--but what does it mean?

thespectator.com/topic/banning-…

(1/xx)

“Whoever controls big data technologies will control the resources for development and have the upper hand,” Xi Jinping declared shortly after assuming control of China.

nytimes.com/2021/11/30/opi…

(2/xx)

In the years since, the Chinese surveillance state has exploded at home and abroad, thanks to espionage-adjacent apps such as WeChat, but none has raised as much ire as TikTok.

wsj.com/articles/tikto…

(3/xx)

Following reams of data showing that your teenager’s favorite app is poisoning their mind and spying on them, the calls to ban TikTok are now coming from inside the House… and Senate. But how would such a ban actually work?

thespectator.com/topic/banning-…

(4/xx)

What does it mean to ban an app that is supported by the technological infrastructure of the CCP?

thespectator.com/topic/banning-…

(5/xx)

Answers to those questions lie in how India blocked the app and how the US government forced the sale of Grindr, a popular gay dating app. The former path would lead to a TikTok-free America; the latter would lead to a CCP-free TikTok.

thespectator.com/topic/banning-…

(6/xx)

India successfully banned TikTok, along with dozens of other CCP-controlled entities due to complaints that they were “stealing and surreptitiously transmitting users’ data in an unauthorized manner to servers which have locations outside India.”

thespectator.com/topic/banning-…

(7/xx)

Grindr was owned by Chinese entities until the US-based Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, or CFIUS, forced its sale to an American entity because of concern that the CCP could access data, such as HIV status, of American users

thespectator.com/topic/banning-…

(8/xx)

This is a very fair concern, because Grindr was offloading TONS of data, including users' HIV statuses to third parties!!

vox.com/2018/4/2/17189…

(9/xx)

The consensus among the anti-TikTok crusaders is that a full ban is the only real solution; forcing a sale to a US-based entity would not address all of critics’ national security concerns.

thespectator.com/topic/banning-…

(10/xx)

Another country that bans the app apart from India is China!

It prevents its population from getting high on its own TikTok supply. Within China, users instead have a version called Douyin that is closely monitored by the Chinese government.

thespectator.com/topic/banning-…

(11/xx)

Western studies of the platform show that Douyin offers math and pro-CCP content, while its overseas counterpart, TikTok, provides mindless content that amounts to “digital fentanyl.”

thespectator.com/topic/banning-…

(12/xx)

Try to open the app and you are greeted with a message that reads: “TikTok is complying with the ban and that its top priority is protecting the privacy and safety of Indian users.”

thespectator.com/topic/banning-…

(13/xx)

Since the TikTok ban, the app has vanished from the app stores in India, though Indians can use workarounds like a virtual private network, or VPN — a problem that bans in America will likely encounter as well.

thespectator.com/topic/banning-…

(14/xx)

But most TikTok users in India who don’t want to figure out how to download a VPN have successfully been banned from accessing the platform, providing a roadmap for America.

thespectator.com/topic/banning-…

(15/xx)

So TikTok isn’t completely inaccessible from within India’s borders, the country that was once its largest market with over 100 million users DID ban new downloads, and made it impossible for users to access without downloading external software

thespectator.com/topic/banning-…

(16/xx)

In the aftermath of the Indian ban, TikTok laid off thousands of employees across its Indian offices. Nikkei Asia reported that “the app is essentially withdrawing from India.”

thespectator.com/topic/banning-…

(17/xx)

Federal Communications Commission commissioner @BrendanCarrFCC says that “India is a good example.” Carr is one of TikTok’s highest profile critics anywhere in the world.

thespectator.com/topic/banning-…

(18/xx)

Beyond the all-out ban India implemented, @BrendanCarrFCC also presented what could be a back-door way to tackle the app if an all-out ban doesn’t take place.

thespectator.com/topic/banning-…

(19/xx)

“There’s sort of two options that get conflated a little bit,” @BrendanCarrFCC told me. “One is a ban like they did in India. The other is to require a sale or complete corporate decoupling from entities beholden to the CCP. Practically speaking, I think thespectator.com/topic/banning-…… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…

When Grindr’s Chinese owners were forced to sell, they got a windfall profit as the app was sold not at a fire-sale price but for $620 million after the initial purchase.

thespectator.com/topic/banning-…

(21/xx)

This is a possibility that’s floated by @tiktok_us opponents as well; the Trump-era idea of forcing it to offload its data into US-based servers through America-based Oracle Corporation is an option reminiscent of the Grindr ownership transfer.

thespectator.com/topic/banning-…

(22/xx)

In this case, TikTok would still exist, but concerns about communist espionage would be minimized.

BUT TikTok’s fiercest critics think that a CFIUS-forced sale wouldn’t be enough, and that a full ban à la India is the only real path forward.

thespectator.com/topic/banning-…

(23/xx)

Unlike Grindr, which was never fully run by the CCP, there is virtually no difference between TikTok, ByteDance and the Chinese Communist Party.

Even if it were sold to an American entity, its staffing would remain heavily staffed by CCP allies

thespectator.com/topic/banning-…

(24/xx)