Mandated TikTok Transparency is Needed to Protect US Users
One national security concern that motivated the law mandating the transfer of TikTok from its Chinese owner, ByteDance, to a US controlled entity was the possibility that the Chinese government, through its control of ByteDance, could use TikTok for influence operations or other propaganda campaigns to shift US public opinion in a pro-China direction. The January 22 press release announcing the establishment of a new US-controlled TikTok joint venture contained two important safeguards to protect US users from such Chinese influence operations. But it needs to be supplemented with further transparency measures to ensure that these safeguards are effective.
Both China hawks and China doves should agree with two additional transparency measures: first, that the new joint venture release the terms of any agreement with ByteDance in connection with licensing its underlying content recommendation algorithm and second, that
it provide access to independent researchers to determine whether the ongoing operations of TikTok’s social media platform are free of Chinese government manipulation.
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