Fellow journalists who spoke with TikTok press representatives told me that company representatives open my emails requesting comment with trepidation. One reporter said a representative told them that he would invariably ask them to comment on an internal policy, a leaked document, or a new feature they didn’t even know existed. And I’m currently working on more difficult stories about the platform. (If you have any advice, please contact me for my Signal number.)
But those tough stories won’t focus on the company turning over data to Chinese authorities or the security risks associated with its connection to the Chinese state. Because I haven’t found any evidence of either. I want to find that connection, because like any journalist, I’m selfish and I want to be the one to tell a story like that. I have been trying for years to find links to the Chinese state. I’ve spoken to dozens of TikTok employees, past and present, looking for that connection. But I haven’t figured it out.
I can’t say that that link doesn’t exist. But I can say that I and other more talented journalists have been undermining the TikTok edifice. We now know that the company has spy on journalists and has workplace bullying issues. TikTok financials are constantly leaking. But none of us have found the smoking gun. And I don’t think my fellow reporters are any less eager to find it than I am.
We are in a strange position politically. The legacy of Donald Trump lives on in the form that we have our own personal fictions, which we fiercely believe as fact or have repeated so many times that we forget the truth. Among those fictions: TikTok is a proven risk. TikTok is a puppet of the Chinese state. TikTok is a Trojan horse waiting to be activated by Chinese President Xi Jinping to overthrow the West.
Triumph launched a series of ads online in 2020 saying: “TikTok is spying on you”. It’s a sentiment echoed by other politicians, including Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley, who worries about TikTok’s ties to China.
None of this is true. At least from what I can tell. However, listening to politicians on both sides of the aisle talk about it, it is a verifiable fact. And they want the app to be banned for it.
These American politicians are taking a curiously Chinese approach: cracking down and censoring in the interest of harmony, rather than allowing free enterprise from a company that has shown it is willing to go to any lengths to try to address concerns, and has made what appears to be good faith efforts to address issues as they arise.
We are likely to see a lot of heat and little light at Thursday’s congressional hearing. There will be the usual protests from TikTok that it has no connections to the Chinese government, and the usual bragging from politicians that TikTok’s responses aren’t good enough. But for the good of the 150 million Americans Now using the app, we have to hope that TikTok responses will be enough.