Chuck Todd: The big missing piece in Congress' rushed TikTok debate
An important aspect of the debate over TikTok — privacy — has gotten lost as Congress considers legislation that could force a sale or lead to a ban of the app.
An important aspect of the debate over TikTok has gotten lost as Congress considers legislation that would potentially force the app’s parent company, ByteDance, to sell TikTok or face a U.S. ban: the public’s privacy.
Unfortunately, the best-case scenario for this legislation is that the American people’s data will still be available for manipulation and used for algorithms with very little public insight into how they work.
Let’s back up to how we got here. I’m always a bit nervous when Congress goes from not acting on something for years to sudden near unanimity in a matter of days. Usually, there’s a hint of crisis in the air to get Congress to move as fast as it suddenly appears to be moving on TikTok.
So why now? Clearly, there are concerns about potential operational control of the TikTok algorithm on the part of the Chinese government. Given this is an election year and young voters are potentially so crucial to the outcome, fear of an outside entity’s influencing the election through TikTok should be something that the government can prevent.
Meanwhile, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence put out its annual report in time for this year’s worldwide threats hearing, which is happening in the midst of this TikTok debate. Among the warnings: that China is ramping up its covert operations and might attempt to influence the election by exploiting our country’s perceived societal divisions via social media.
Rating: 5