National security is more important than Gen-Z’s dance videos

TikTok's CEO at the inauguration on Monday
TikTok’s CEO at the inauguration on Monday - JULIA DEMAREE NIKHINSON/Shutterstock

Donald Trump’s inauguration on Monday was marred by a shameful decision that, if it proves representative of what is to come, portends poorly for the United States and the world order it upholds.

When Trump attended a service at St John’s Episcopal Church hours before he took the oath of office, TikTok CEO Shou Chew was also there. When Trump was sworn in at the Capitol, Chew was in attendance in the rotunda. Later, Trump would do Chew the favour of a lifetime and sign an executive order granting Chew’s company a 75-day extension to comply with a federal law that could result in its ban in the United States.

Supposedly the delay is designed to permit Tiktok’s at least partial sale to a US company. But it’s difficult to imagine a more inauspicious start for the new President; TikTok is a clear and present national security threat, under the influence of the United States’ chief geopolitical rival.

The social media platform is owned by ByteDance, a Chinese firm ultimately subject to the whims of the Chinese Communist Party. Somewhere in the neighbourhood of 170 million Americans are on TikTok. The idea that they and their data are protected from the nefarious designs of the CCP in Beijing is laughable.

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Moreover, there is evidence that TikTok’s algorithm is being used to promote Chinese interests among the American populace. A study from Rutgers University found that topics typically suppressed by the Chinese government – including Beijing’s genocide against the Uyghurs, or the Tiananmen Square massacre – appear to be underrepresented on TikTok compared to Instagram. Anti-Israel and pro-Russia propaganda also abound on the platform.

As if that was not reason enough to compel Trump to do his job, what he’s done is arguably unlawful. The president is not supposed to be a sovereign, able to treat Congress’s actions as mere suggestions, but a faithful executor of its will. When he took the oath of office on Monday, Trump swore to do exactly that.

Worse yet is his reasoning for postponing the TikTok ban. Trump had previously advocated a ban on the platform himself. In August 2020, he signed an executive order imposing sanctions on the company and declared that “the United States must take aggressive action against the owners of TikTok to protect our national security,” while citing fears about the app’s espionage and disinformation capabilities – the very same concerns that motivated Congress to pass the bill he’s chosen to disrupt. As Trump put it just a few years ago, “these risks are real”.

Now though, Trump has given only a selfish, even illogical, explanation of his change of heart. He recently declared that he has a “warm spot” for the platform because “we did go on TikTok” during the 2024 campaign and received “a great response”. He repeated that explanation on Monday, once again referencing that “warm spot”. In a Fox News interview last night, he downplayed the threat posed by TikTok.

But China is an expansionist power with designs on not only absorbing Taiwan, but on supplanting the United States as hegemon. Its efforts towards that end extend beyond expanding its military capabilities, and backing the free world’s enemies in Iran and Russia. The threat posed by the likes of TikTok cannot be underplayed.

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These are serious times. And they require decisive leaders ready, willing, and able to do what is necessary to level with the American people about what the CCP is and what must be done to keep it in check. However warm he might feel towards TikTok – and however many millions of Gen-Zers might complain about no longer being able to post dance videos on the platform – Trump must refocus on this vital task.


Isaac Schorr is a staff writer at Mediaite and a Robert Novak fellow