Democrat Ideas on How to Handle TikTok Range From Dumb to Highly Suspicious

The Chinese spy balloon that transitioned the United States may be no more, but the tensions brought about by the saga remain. China is already threatening retaliation while the Biden administration is facing questions about its lagging indecisiveness prior to finally shooting the balloon down.

But concerns over Chinese spying don’t end there. The use of the social media app TikTok still remains extremely prevalent in the United States, with adopters rangings anywhere from politicians to children. That’s a major problem given the app is Chinese-controlled and is used by the communists to mine personal data (among other things).

In a sane country, it wouldn’t even be a question that such a dangerous intrusion by a foreign adversary must be quashed. Unfortunately, Democrats are apparently perplexed by the situation, and their ideas range from dumb to highly suspicious.

It shouldn’t be this difficult to deal with a Chinese spy app.

I’m really hoping Khanna is just being naive and that he doesn’t actually think forcing the sale to an American company eliminates China’s ability to use the app to spy. There is little doubt the Chicoms have built-in numerous backdoors that allow them to keep mining the personal data of Americans regardless of what corporate entity is cashing the profit checks. There would also be immediate pressure on whatever new company bought TikTok to cooperate with China in order to keep the app legal in the oppressive state. We’ve seen that happen with major tech companies like Google.

At least Khanna is suggesting an end to open Chinese control of the app, though. Over in the US Senate, Corey Booker says (The Hill) that US intelligence is working with TikTok to stop China from interfering in the app.

“I think there’s two ways to approach this one,” Booker told Margaret Brennan on CBS’s “Face the Nation.” “The proactive step of banning and on government devices is something that the United States federal government is doing, states and even localities are doing.”

“But the other way to go about this is going directly to the company. They are now working with U.S. intelligence folks to try to make sure that the proper precautions are taken so the Chinese cannot get access and use it for spying,” he continued.

This is where things go from naive to highly suspicious. I assume that Booker is smart enough to realize TikTok, being a Chinese-owned company (Bytedance), is not autonomous. No corporation originating in China has control of itself. If US intelligence is actually working with TikTok right now for any reason whatsoever, that throws up a litany of red flags.

Booker is basically saying that the US government is working with the murderer to ensure there will be no more murders. It’s absurd. What kind of counter-intel operations is China running if one of its companies is now working directly with US intelligence? And how could such an arrangement ever provide the national security guarantees necessary?

Then there’s Joe Biden, who just has no idea what’s going on.

China is using a social media app to mine the data of millions of Americans while also floating spy balloons over the continental US, and Joe Robinette Biden “is not sure” whether we should ban TikTok. You’d think a president would have an opinion on such a very important topic, but as usual, our current one is completely aloof, once again showing himself to so obviously not be in charge of anything.

Again, why is this so difficult? We are talking about a known Chinese spy app, and Democrats can’t just say “yeah, we should ban this.” It’s not a matter of free speech or free markets when a foreign adversary is involved. Yet, the people who wanted to ban you from ordering Russian dressing over “Russian election interference” are suddenly meek as a lamb when it comes to something this simple regarding the Chicoms. We should all probably be asking why.