Thread by @AnupamChander

A 🧵 on the #TikTokBan. 1/

I got why Trump wanted to ban TikTok. He had been pawned on it by #BTSArmy. nytimes.com/2020/06/21/sty… 2/

Trump was facing nearly daily humiliation with the great @sarahcpr. nytimes.com/2020/05/27/art… 3/

If I were Trump, and I saw this video, I'd want to ban TikTok, too. 4/

Trump hoped to move ownership to Oracle, run by his friends. nytimes.com/2020/09/04/tec… 5/

But the Biden Administration has been keen to use TikTok to spread its message (what others might call "propaganda"). Transportation Sec'y Pete Buttegieg was the first cabinet official to appear on TikTok, in April 2021: news.yahoo.com/buttigieg-on-n… 6/

And the Biden Administration invited TikTok influencers to the White House in April 2022 to spread its message on Ukraine, washingtonpost.com/technology/202… 7/

and then in October, right before the midterm elections. npr.org/2022/10/09/112… 8/

So much so, that a recent @WSJ story points out the Administration's predicament--they rely on TikTok to spread their message, now with 2024 coming up (and the Republicans largely unilaterally disarming)... wsj.com/articles/biden… 9/

Thus, the win-win solution: Threaten a ban, but hope that TikTok moves out of Chinese ownership. The same hope that Trump had. 10/

One critical difference: Trump wanted an American owner; Biden presumably will tolerate a foreign owner outside China and officially sanctioned states. 11/

Reenter Softbank, which had interest in 2020, but stepped aside when it became clear that Trump wanted a good ole' American company? theinformation.com/articles/softb… 12/

But what comes after this divestiture. Won't folks start calling for other divestitures? 13/

First, of course, WeChat. WeChat was almost collateral damage in 2020. It raises serious propaganda and surveillance issues. 14/

But even Temu and Shein -- after all, hog butchers owned by China are a national security threat. Why not clothiers? After all, they might be able to make fun of us by our shopping habits. Or might get our credit card info. wsj.com/articles/smith… 15/

But then, add Telegram--which has Russian origins, and whose operations remain largely obscure. wired.com/story/the-krem… 16/

But why stop there? Why not this sacred platform? Why not Twitter? After all, Musk is subject to foreign pressure. brookings.edu/research/the-n… 17/

And won't this ignite possible app ownership changes across the world? Countries are already trying to localize data. Here's my 2015 paper, Data Nationalism, charting this trend. scholarlycommons.law.emory.edu/elj/vol64/iss3… 18

Local ownership is much better than just moving the data to local servers, right? And we know that the NSA isn't exactly trusted globally for not grabbing your data (if you're a foreigner). Prism story (though underlying facts contested): theguardian.com/world/2013/jun… 19/

I've got to go--but there should be better means to protect our national security. 20/end