Should the U.S. Ban TikTok Over National Security Risks?

Look, if Congress suddenly discovered national security because teenagers are lip-syncing on an app owned by a Chinese parent company, forgive us for not fainting on cue. Yes, ByteDance’s ties to China raise legitimate concerns. China’s national security laws are broad, opaque, and authoritarian enough to make any data privacy lawyer develop a stress rash. But if the standard is “foreign-owned platforms with massive data collection are dangerous,” then congratulations: the entire social media industry is a five-alarm dumpster fire. Meta, Google, X, and half the ad-tech swamp vacuum up oceans of personal data, manipulate feeds with black-box algorithms, and face laughably weak regulation. So if lawmakers want to protect Americans, maybe write actual privacy laws instead of staging a performative exorcism of the one app young people use to roast them in real time.

Let’s stop pretending this is just another social media food fight. TikTok is not merely a goofy app where people rank fast food sauces and accidentally learn sea shanties. It is owned by ByteDance, a company ultimately subject to the laws of the Chinese Communist Party — and unlike Silicon Valley, the CCP is not merely creepy and irresponsible; it is a strategic adversary with a documented record of espionage, influence operations, intellectual property theft, and using technology as an arm of state power. If a hostile government can potentially access location data, behavioral patterns, device information, and a direct pipeline into the minds of 170 million Americans, especially younger ones, that is not a quirky market issue. That is a national security issue with a neon sign on it.