Who could have seen this coming?
During an interview aired on Friday’s “PBS NewsHour,” CIA Director William Burns said that the agrees with FBI Director Christopher Wray’s assessment that TikTok is a threat to national security and “it’s genuinely troubling to see what the Chinese government could do to manipulate TikTok.”
Host Judy Woodruff asked, “One other question about China is their very popular social media platform app TikTok. Your domestic counterpart, the head of the FBI, Chris Wray, has said it’s a threat to U.S. national security. Do you agree?”
Burns responded, “I do. I mean, I think it’s a genuine concern, I think, for the U.S. government, in the sense that, because the parent company of TikTok is a Chinese company, the Chinese government is able to insist upon extracting the private data of a lot of TikTok users in this country, and also to shape the content of what goes onto TikTok as well to suit the interests of the Chinese leadership. I think those are real challenges and a source of real concern.”
Woodruff then asked Burns if he thinks lawmakers should ban the app, Burns responded, “I’m not going to offer judgments on those kind of policy or legislative decisions. What I would underscore, though, is that it’s genuinely troubling to see what the Chinese government could do to manipulate TikTok.”
Woodruff then asked, “And what would you recommend people tell their children or their young friends about whether to use TikTok?”
Burns answered, “I’d be really careful.”
No one was warning about this, right?
Maybe Trump was right about TikTok
Here’s something you rarely hear a Democratic senator say: “Donald Trump was right.”
But that’s what Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA) is saying now, and it’s all because of TikTok, the popular video app that Trump tried to ban in the waning months of his presidency.
“As painful as it is for me to say, if Donald Trump was right and we could’ve taken action then, that’d have been a heck of a lot easier than trying to take action in November of 2022,” Warner told Recode. “The sooner we bite the bullet, the better.”
Surprise! One of my favorite sites, Bored Panda, wrote long ago that TikTok was privacy threat. Of course, that post is buried deep, because they keep posting posts that mention TikTok. Here’s the NY Times saying TikTok may be more dangerous than it looks. VPN Overview notes it is invasive and dangerous. Behind all the cute pet videos and such (along with all the stupid stuff) lies a serious privacy risk, especially with the Chinese government behind it. So many were noting well before Trump did that TikTok was a threat. Here’s Jimmy Fallon, among others, denigrating Trump for saying it is dangerous and should be banned.
When does Trump, and all those who said TikTok is a problem, get apologies?
Which is the greater threat? Is TikTok a national security threat, or is Libs of TikTok the threat for exposing just how boneheadedly stupid the woke really are?
Jeez, that’s a tough one.
Bwaha!
Some people think the real reason the gooberment is worried about Tiktok is that they don’t control it.