The Problem With TikTok – not what you think

In brief –TLDR.

Strategically speaking, What do you do when one of your nation’s largest drivers of small business growth is also a weaponizable cyber asset owned and controlled by a foreign nation engaged in trade war, actively threatening military action, and has a history of using any tools available for espionage against your private citizens and businesses?

1 – TikTok is a popular and addictive Social Media App with over 170 Million users in the United States. It’s now the primary sales channel for thousands of American small businesses, responsible for over $14 billion in small business revenue, over 100,000 jobs, and $5 Billion in tax revenue.

This is why American small businesses are using TikTok to sell everything they can.

Gary Vee as an experiment sold $40,000 of T-Shirts in 2 hours using live shopping. Small Businesses like The Anti-Planner get almost 100% of their sales through TikTok and are now asking for their communities to help generate new sales channels for post-TikTok.

2 – TikTok is also a trojan horse and cyber weapon that the Chinese military can use to spy on you (like every phone app can), spread propaganda, and manipulate public opinion through misinformation and control of the algorithm.

And TikTok has already been weaponized and used against journalists and private citizens. In incidents we know of.

Like most apps on your phone, TikTok gives its owner access to your personal information. Like your location, when you sleep, when you are on your phone, your interests, and your biases.

The trick is TikTok can and has been used as a Chinese cyber weapon, That doesn’t mean it is or will be used as a cyber weapon.

However, given the recent Chinese history of espionage and cyber attacks, having TikTok on your phone is a clear risk. This is why very few people in the military, defense industry, or cybersecurity industry have TikTok on their phones.

3 – Changing the ownership of the technology doesn’t change anything. It’s still a giant piece of technology with who knows how many exploits and back doors the new owners won’t be able to control.

Which is a big reason why TikTok can’t find an American buyer.

Creating a US island of TikTok walled off from China will probably not remove any back doors the Chinese developers have into the technology.

4- In the current trade war, the Chinese government is unlikely to transfer the technology and intellectual property of a company worth $18 Billion dollars of annual revenue.

Not to mention the resulting tech transfer of TikTok to the US would effectively create a US-based direct competitor to Chinese TikTok.

This is currently an American debate. But it’s a global issue.

And there is no easy answer. It’s a great example of a lose-lose scenario. No matter what happens to TikTok, we lose.