The End of TikTok

Is this the end of TikTok?

In this episode, Darnley explores the ramifications of the US Congress's choice to regulate TikTok, a Chinese-owned video application, due to concerns over national security threats. Will this decision potentially hamper the growth of other social media platforms? Is it a prudent step in safeguarding our privacy from foreign entities?  Listen here.

Transcript

EP 69 – The End of TikTok 

Episode Recap:

·      Why the US Government is Banning TikTok

·      Why TikTok is a threat against our democracy

·      Is this the start of censorship as we know it?

Why Is the US Government Banning TikTok?

·      If you listened to Episode 37 – why tiktok is dangerous, you’ll get a sense even before all of this occurred there were some inherent issues with TikTok from the beginning. 

·      The point of this episode is to explain WHY the app is now getting banned and the HOW it will affect not just only the Americans but the rest of the world. 

·      I will unfortunately have to say this on record to erode any misconceptions by my listeners is that I have, and always have a non-partisan perspective. This is extremely helpful for having honest non-biased opinion about a particular party, or leaning and stick to the facts and truth without smudging politics with what I discuss here. Cybersecurity does not care where you lean and will take advantage of you if you are ill-prepared. 

·      In Washington the house voted to pass legislation that could ben TikTok as both political parties in the USA have sounded the alarm over the video-sharing app – TikTok. The vote was 352-65, which now the bill is headed in the Senate. Regardless who exactly voted for or against the bill, the bigger picture here is their claims about free speech. How will this affect all of us exactly? Why the hate for TikTok?

·      To quote The top Democrat on the Intelligence Committee, Rep. Jim Himes of Connecticut – “Adversaries like China shut down newspapers, broadcast stations, and social media platforms. We do not, We trust our citizens to be worthy of their democracy. We do not trust our government to decide what information they may or may not see."

·      I personally have another perspective on the absolute truth in this, especially when it comes to the perspective of free press in Western society...this is another conversation and topic in itself which I am not getting into in this episode. I will say that the US government wants TikTok to divest or sell TikTok or it will be banned from app stores and web-hosting services in the United States. It only gives 165 days to do this…which seems a little unrealistic to me for spinning off a company like this.

·      If you listened to Episode 37 you may already assume my specific stand on TikTok. I can tell you from someone who has operated in and around Cybersecurity: worked within the Banking, National Security, Education and retail sectors…I can tell you firsthand experience how social media is good as it is bad for all of us. It certainly helps small businesses, helps influencers gain fame, but it takes away from the cold hard truth…who is this benefiting? 

·      TikTok is owned by Chinese-parent company ByteDance. It has obviously slammed the legislation and that it is interfering with American freedoms but funny coming from a company held down by a communist government. For those who need a quick education on how China operates, all the businesses have to report back to the communist Chinese government, who in turn can gain access to all data for these organizations. Which is a slippery slope on growing foreign adversary to the US and democracies around the world given their growing political stance. If you paid attention to the sectors I have been involved with in my past, there is some hard truths here as to why we do need to ban TikTok. 

Why TikTok is a threat against our democracy

·      The biggest threat in today western society is infiltration, deception, misinformation and bigger national security threats. To see this in full optics, check out Douyin which is TikToks Chinese counterpart. You will be amazed that these are two separate apps, which is done on purpose. WeChat operates the same way too – one Chinese version and one international version. Why do you think this is the case? 

·      From the get-go Douyins features are more advanced, they use facial recognition, but the other key thing is that there is more educational content out there verses TikTok. To me it seems that Douyin is heavily moderated by the standards of the communist government and TikTok is a dogs breakfast, everything and anything can be found here. 

·      As the younger generation is seduced by TikTok, Douyin is heavily moderated where young users are limited to 40 minutes a day between 6am-10pm. The algorithm is vastly different too, as I said promoting more science educational and historical content in China. Whereas the international version is not moderated and these silly dance videos are pure entertainment and nothing else. 

·      As the saying “you are what you eat” should now be “you are what you consume” – video content included. 

·      Communism is not democracy, so having these app limitations are part of the communist territory. This is true, but the proof is in the pudding. Chinese government is exploiting the apps access to our young and old generation. Thus dumbing down our society with obtuse content wheras in their country their young generation are aspiring to be astronauts whereas here they are aspiring to be influencers. 

·      Like to hear this or not, TikTok is a weapon of mass manipulation and misinformation created by the CCP. As this app is still continued to be allowed to be consumed in Western societies, the dumber our society will become. I won’t just stop at TikTok, our other social media apps have done a great job at social engineering our children into stupidity. Greater work needs to be done at the educational and parental levels.

·      Kids and teens around the world are watching an average of 91 minutes of TikTok videos per day(more than YouTube), providing Bytedance with unprecedented access to the eyes, ears, hearts, and minds of young people. They’ve literally hooked our children. Studies out of China found that areas of the brain associated with addiction light up in brain scans when young people are shown TikTok videos. Understand yet?

·      Research from Google notes that 40% of Gen Z are using TikTok and Instagram as their primary search engine. 

·      The contrast between the U.S. and Chinese versions is a great example of why the USA and the rest of the world needs more regulation around social media, especially for kids,China would have never-ever allowed this to happen on their shores. 

·      For your information, China actually does not allow US or International apps run in their country, so many of our apps are banned or heavily watered down and monitored by the CCP. To really state that this is an infringement on Americans rights is a little two-faced if you ask me. Just look what they are doing across the pond.

Is this the start of US censorship as we know it?

·      Let’s go down this rabbit hole for a moment – the US government is finding ways to ban apps, could this mean this tirade will continue with other apps?

·      What happened during World War 1 and World War 2? Handing of information. It is a new area but same old tactics. 

·      We are slowly sailing towards a war-footing in Western democracies, unfortunately. The writing is on the wall and I have the pleasure of reading new sources outside my country or the NATO societies. Propaganda is running rampant from all countries, North America, Latin America, Europe, Russia, Africa, China, Asia…there are always a missing piece to the puzzle and we are only fed to push us into a direction.

·      Why am I going on about this? To give you context – why would the CCP want to use an app to influence a population of an adversary? The CCP has been doing this for many years already – don’t even take my word for it either. The people who live and work in this world will understand without me saying anything more. 

·      Deep within TikTok there is an issue, a data issue if you will. The US officials worry that the data from its millions could get taken by the Chinese government, unless it has already. This personal data could be used against their population, show videos that could influence their views, including the upcoming presidential election. Even the TikTok CEO denies this – but would he really bite the hand that feeds? 

·      Are these bullying tactics by the US government valid? Or do they simply just want to have a better control over the content their people use for propaganda purposes post-war? 

·      The bill actually states that they want to divest the app from Chinese government control of the data – not to ban it entirely. Which is fair seeing as the Chinese government demands these restrictions on apps being served in their own country. 

·      I can personally say, from the censorship point of view, and from what I’ve seen from this app itself and my experience in cybersecurity affairs, I understand what the US government is trying to do and I can stand behind it. 

·      I am not behind manipulation, divisiviness, misinformation and disinformation which the US government and other NATO governments are guilty for. The apps we use in our society should be free and open, unfortunately with the regulations a mess right now I fwwl this will take more time and effort to finally mature the data protection that regular people need out there. By completely controlling what people feed off of online, is another form a manipulation which has been around for centuries which the newspapers and media outlets are to blame even today. 

·      Influence can be a hurdle to jump over, however, during these turbulent times where we are now pointing our nukes at each other… we really need to understand the full picture before pulling triggers. This requires the cold hard truth which is still being stifled because all the global governments want greater control for the population to follow a certain narrative and keep us divided. 

·      My final note here, is if you are a parent, have young kids or teenagers, please heed my warning. Setting limits, or deleting these distracting apps completely will help disconnect from the noise they experience while on these apps.  

·      To my friends all over the world, keep freedom free.