Factors make TikTok a threat to US national security.

TikTok is being bann by the US because it is danger to national security and is controlled by China. The following five factors make TikTok a threat to US national security.

Danger to national security:

TikTok, the immensely popular video-sharing app controlled by Beijing-based ByteDance, is view as a danger to national security by many Americans.

The five reasons why are as follows:

Data exchange

Similar to its competitors Instagram, Snapchat, and YouTube, TikTok feeds on data, and young users’ willingness to reveal seemingly endless amounts of personal information on the highly addicting app.

Critics of TikTok are concern that this data is being handle in China, where the Communist Party is in power, by a Chinese corporation.

However, other experts think the threat is exaggerate and that malicious actors may access the vast amounts of data regardless of who controls the platform and where it is situate.

Spying:

Like many other applications, TikTok spying might give you access to a user’s complete phone.

According to Michael Daniel, CEO of Cyber Threat Alliance, “Anytime you have an app on the phone, there’s the opportunity for leveraging that app to bridge access to other things on the phone.”

According to Daniel, a former cybersecurity coordinator at the US National Security Council, this may entail “secretly activating the device’s microphone or camera without the user even being aware.”

Censorship

Cybersecurity experts also point to China’s government’s capacity to filter TikTok material in order to uphold Communist Party objectives as another possible hazard.

The plan, according to Daniel, is for the Chinese government to eventually order TikTok users outside of China to refrain from posting content that endorses Tibet or Taiwan, so influencing the information landscape.

Misinformation

Another concern is that, like Russia did in 2016 to influence the US presidential election, the Chinese government may use TikTok to destabilize US culture.

Simply China?

Given its Chinese roots, several analysts question if TikTok can do much to allay worries, particularly in light of the Republicans’ January takeover of the US House of Representatives.

Republicans, who historically have been more critical of Beijing than Democrats, have made the preponderance of the arguments against TikTok.