(Uploaded 8/25/20)

TikTok is a very popular app with over 1 Billion downloads, which translates to almost 1/7th of World Population. This app is very popular among youngsters here in the USA, just as it has taken the world by storm. TikTok like all other “free” social media platforms, treats its users as their product, their personal data as its currency, and their Business Model is predicated on trading one’s personal information to use these “free” services. The app’s privacy policy says TikTok “may share your information with a parent, subsidiary, or other affiliate of our corporate group” while an April 2019 statement from TikTok appears to indicate that some user data is being sent to Peoples Republic of China (PRC).

However, in our view, it is very justified to take down TikTok’s US Operations, as in the current form, TikTok seems to be a personal data gathering and AI (artificial intelligence) enabled tool of the PRC (Chinese) Government. We have attempted to provide justification, along with some unanswered questions on this subject, to support our assertion below:

1. TikTok is a platform developed by ByteDance (parent company of TikTok) which is primarily an Artificial Intelligence (AI) company whose product is not content creation but algorithm development. It is believed that ByteDance is partly owned by the Chinese PLA (Peoples Republic of China) as a part of Chinese PRC’s (People’s Republic of China) Strategy to become a Superpower using AI by 2030
2. AI is a game changer in Social Media as the computer (AI Engine) decides what you should watch / not watch (by overriding Search Options) i.e. Platform controls what you watch – this is a huge problem of circumvention of our 1st Amendment Rights. So in essence, when you are watching a TikTok video you are taking a survey and constantly feeding information to their AI Engine about your preferences (likes / dislike) , agree / disagree and all of this is being sent to TikTok Servers to refine their algorithms. PRC (China) enacted a law in 2017 that all Chinese Companies must share the data collected with the Chinese Government and this leads to us believe that our data is now being stored in servers in PRC (China) and TikTok’s algorithms are being refined as we speak!
3. China has no freedom of Press and everything is controlled by PRC and these restrictions are applied on anybody who uses any Chinese App including TikTok. So if you create a video talking about Tibet, Taiwan or HK, your video may not be directly banned but will be restricted! By using this application, we are supporting China’s version of the Internet where information is suppressed by not allowing access to Google, Facebook, Twitter and other platforms
4. TikTok’s privacy policy also appears to include conditions that if you use TikTok to link to other Social Media Apps, TikTok will gather data from those apps also which makes TikTok very “intrusive” / “aggressive” in terms of collecting personal data
5. TikTok’s privacy policy does NOT specify how long a deleted account data will stored i.e. they can store somebody’s account data for an infinite period after account is deleted – scary!
6. We can surmise that TikTok can also be used by PRC for more sinister applications  e.g. assuming that we are in a conflict (hot or cold war) with China, they have real-time location information on all the US Citizens (who have this app on their phone). Could the PLA (Chinese military) use this data to gather intelligence or worse target us here in the USA?
7. Also during times of conflict,  could TikTok’s AI Engine using our location data could send us misinformation or send us directions from “fake” sites that look like US (Federal or State) Government Sites to cause untold confusion and demoralize the populace?
8. TikTok for content delivery till some time ago did not use unsecured (http://) server and NOT secured (https://) servers (unsecured servers can be hacked). Could malware or doctored content can be forwarded?
9. TikTok appears to have significant “undocumented functionality” embedded in the platform. For instance, collection of Location Data in any app is normally controlled by using the appropriate setting on “App Permissions” i.e. if you do not want to share your location information, you could “turn off” the Location Data at the OS level. However, it appears that TikTok obtains user Location Data directly your Phone’s Sim-Card, which is very dangerous and sinister, since there is no way to turn off collection of location data in this case. In our opinion, this feature is an overkill without warning and appears to be buried in small print. This was tested a few week ago using these steps:
   – TikTok, after download like all apps, seeks permission to use your Camera etc.
   – Settings “In App Permissions” does not have TikTok mentioned anywhere
   – When viewing videos here, American Ads and content displayed
   – Used a VPN – changed to India and then started getting Indian Ads and Indian content
   – How does TikTok know even when Location turned off?
   – Case in point: Google Map does not work properly – will not work without permission
   – Hence, it appears that TikTok does not ask “permission” but still accesses your Location Data

Our President is spot on with this Executive Order to Ban TikTok or get their US operations to be acquired by an American Company by mid-September. However, the following points need to be considered paramount by our Federal Regulators, when reviewing / approving this Acquisition by any US Company:
1. Acquiring US Company must gather all US Citizen data gathered so far from TikTok, delete the said data from Tiktok’s (PRC & other foreign) Server(s) and backup devices, and store it on US Servers and certify the same to our US Regulators
2. Acquiring US Company must ensure that TikTok’s AI Engine from PRC is disabled completely in this version of TikTok Platform that will operate here in USA
3. Acquiring US Company must also certify that going forward the Chinese Company (ByteDance) or TikTok overseas divisions do NOT collect any more US Citizen Data nor apply their AI Engine on US Citizen Data

If the above three conditions to acquire the US version of TikTok from ByteDance are not fulfilled when closing this Acquisition Transaction, the US Federal Government must go ahead and ban this platform here in the USA.

Hence, in our opinion, the Executive Order to Ban TikTok Platform from US in September if not acquired by a US Company, goes a long way  to protect privacy of American Citizens from Chinese Interference using sophisticated Artificial Intelligence based surveillance. Our President, as always is doing the right thing, for us the American People.