In
a recent
Congressional hearing
the TikTok CEO was grilled for five hours on
the grounds of “security concerns.” This was
days after the FBI and DOJ launched an
investigation on the Chinese-owned American
company. Isn’t it ironic that while the US
government is putting TikTok under the
magnifying glass, it’s turning a blind eye to
its own surveillance programs on the American
people?
Ten
years ago, Edward Snowden told the whole world
the truth about the US global surveillance
programs. If Congress cares about our digital
privacy, it should first begin by
investigating the surveillance policies of its
own US agencies. The campaign against TikTok
is a fear-mongering tactic to wage war on
China.
In
2020, the FBI used social media to monitor
racial justice protesters who were targeted
for arrests. For example, activist Mike Avery
was arrested after posting about protests on
Facebook, and his charges were dropped without
explanation a few weeks later. An FBI official
was so frustrated with the extensive social
media surveillance that he told the Intercept,
“Man, I don’t even know what’s legal anymore.”
The
dissonance between accusing TikTok of security
concerns and working with other companies to
invade people’s privacy rings loudly in our
ears.
Social
media has long been a tool used by federal
agencies to target individuals and communities
designated as “threat.” The Department of
Homeland Security and the Immigration and
Customs Enforcement have monitored the social
media activities of immigrant rights
activists. The State Department used social
media screening to discriminate against the
Muslim, Arab, Middle Eastern, and South Asian
communities under the Trump administration’s
“Muslim ban.”
Only
last year that the post-9/11 NSA phone
surveillance program was reported to have shut
down. Major telecom companies like Verizon
gave the government access to hundreds of
millions of calls and texts. Dataminr, a
startup Twitter partner, provided police with
data about BLM protests. One focus on
‘potential gang members’ targeted Black and
Latinx people, including school-aged children.
Meta's
subsidiary WhatsApp was reportedly used by the
Saudi government to hack journalist Jamal
Khashoggi's phone. Meanwhile, Meta itself used
a VPN to spy on users' smartphones for market
research in exchange for bribes. Yet WhatsApp
is not banned on government devices.
If
our lawmakers are concerned about protecting
digital privacy, then Congress should start
with investigating American federal agencies.
Unlike China as well as other Western
countries, such as the EU, the US does not
have any digital privacy laws on the federal
level. The US could cooperate with China to
better ensure people’s privacy is protected,
instead of driving fear to target one single
social media platform.
The
ongoing effort to investigate and ban TikTok
is not about our privacy, but about fueling
more aggression against China. Fear-mongering
about China has also caused the rise of
anti-Asian racism in the US. In banning
TikTok, the US is projecting its invasive
policies onto another government. Warmongers
are using the issue to create paranoia and
justify even more aggression towards China.
It
is not a coincidence that these recent bans
have come about shortly after a Chinese
weather balloon was shot down over the US.
Privacy concerns are being used to wage war on
China. The US should focus on passing federal
data privacy laws instead of targeting one
app. Double standards and warmongering against
China need to stop. China is not our enemy.
This
commentary is also posted on PeoplesWorld.org.
