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The TikTok debacle: Distinguishing between foreign influence and interference | Brookings

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This is the fifth essay of Global China’s “Lost in translation: Decoding Chinese strategic narratives” series. The full collection of essays can be found here. Washington is afraid of TikTok. More precisely, it is afraid of Beijing’s influence over TikTok via the platform’s China-based parent company ByteDance. Critics allege TikTok, where a third of U.S. adults under 30 get their news, is used to “silence free speech,” “undermine democracy,” and “promote propaganda.” Through China’s National Intelligence Law, ByteDance could gain access to the personal data of its 170 million U.S. users. These fears drove President Joe Biden to sign into law a bill forcing TikTok to find a new owner in one year or be banned in the United States. TikTok has attempted to rebut these accusations by storing U.S. user data on American soil through “Project Texas” and limiting the reach of Chinese state-backed accounts. However, the company has been forced to contend with its own record. Interviews with Tik

The TikTok debate points to a more fundamental question about Beijing’s overseas activities: What separates benign foreign influence from malign interference? And if foreign-owned platforms like TikTok are used for both interference and influence, how should we respond? Democratic governments have used both terms to refer to Chinese activities overseas. A March 2024 report by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence warned of the risk of China’s “malign influence operations” while an ongoing inquiry into the 2019 and 2021 Canadian federal elections has identified China “as a main…

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