Are we still concerned about ‘election interference’ from foreign adversaries?
Zachary Faria
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For all the concerns that Russians “interfered” in the 2016 presidential election, you would think that China’s foray into American elections would raise a five-alarm fire. You would be wrong.
According to Forbes, TikTok accounts run by Chinese state media circulated videos criticizing (mostly Republican) politicians and pushing divisive social issues with little indication that they were coming from the Chinese Communist Party. One such account, called “newstokss,” racked up 8.3 million views in a two-month span during the summer, with videos about mass shootings in the U.S., police shootings of black men, abortion, and criticisms of Gov. Greg Abbott (R-TX), Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), and Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL).
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None of this is particularly surprising. The app is run by a Chinese company that is fully and openly committed to the CCP. The app already pushes dangerous and destructive “trends” to children in the U.S., including vandalizing school bathrooms and stealing cars, trends that you can be assured aren’t promoted to children in China on CCP-approved social media apps. Why wouldn’t China use the social media influence of its popular spyware app to try and manipulate and divide young Americans?
Of course, this likely won’t spur the same outrage from Democrats or their establishment media allies as Russian Facebook memes about the devil endorsing Hillary Clinton and arm-wrestling Jesus did. Russia’s embarrassing attempt at “meme warfare” spurred congressional hearings with Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and intelligence committee meetings. Meanwhile, Democrats use TikTok to campaign, even though they know it is Chinese spyware.
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If only they knew the CCP was already using the platform to campaign for them.
For all the concerns about social media manipulation, “misinformation,” and foreign involvement in elections, TikTok gets a pass. President Joe Biden invites TikTok influencers to the White House so he can reach the youths. Media outlets including the Washington Post and, most recently, the Atlantic have also embraced the app. All the concerns about election interference are gone, as are any about Chinese spyware, because liberal decision-makers want to reach TikTok’s growing audience.