TikTok has over 150 million users in the United States – and the U.S. government is concerned for all of them. Congress has already passed a bill that could potentially outlaw the social media platform – but is TikTok actually a threat to our national security? Marc Berkman, CEO of Organization for Social Media Safety, joined TheStreet to discuss.
Full Video Transcript Below:
J.D. DURKIN: So all apps take our data. They do who knows what with our data. But what makes TikTok different from other social media apps in terms of a potential national security threat?
MARC BERKMAN: Yeah, there is of course, the concern with the data flowing to the Chinese government for many millions of Americans and certainly Americans in key positions that have national security implications. But it’s not just the data issue and the collection of data and its analysis. It’s also the algorithms and the content flowing through the platform and control over those algorithms. Those algorithms for TikTok were developed in China originally as well.
And so that control of information that millions of Americans are seeing every day, it’s not the complete free flow of information. It is controlled by the app. What you actually see. And so one concern, for example, that has come up recently is anti-semitism. So we’re seeing a surge of anti-semitic content on social media platforms in China, which means that has received the OK by the Chinese government. And so does that lead to the potential on TikTok of them adjusting the algorithm and seeing more flow of anti-semitic content on TikTok? It remains a very serious concern.
J.D. DURKIN: Are you of the opinion that TikTok poses a national security threat?
MARC BERKMAN: I’m of the opinion that we need to take it very seriously with a potentially adverse foreign government controlling this flow of information to millions of Americans. I would note that the members of Congress here actually have far more information than any of us in the public have. They are having classified briefings on this. And if they are fairly unanimously coming to the conclusion that there is a very real national security threat, I would then endorse that opinion.
