‘TikTok Is Built Like an Indoctrination Machine’: GOP Senator Sounds Alarm on App’s Impact on American Youth

The icon for the video sharing TikTok app is seen on a smartphone on Feb. 28, 2023. (Matt Slocum/AP Photo)

Sen. Jim Risch (R-Idaho) has asked the Federal Trade Commission to explain what it is doing to prevent adolescent TikTok users from being exposed to Chinese Communist Party (CCP) propaganda and the app’s problematic data procedures.

In a July 31 letter (pdf) to FTC Chair Lina Khan on Monday, Risch, the ranking Republican on the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee, labeled the Beijing-backed social network “the perfect storm for concern” with respect to its impact on American youth.

“Given its connections to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and the way it collects and controls sensitive personal information, TikTok poses one of the greatest long-term threats to the health, safety, and privacy of millions of Americans,” Mr. Risch said in his letter.

He asked Ms. Khan a number of questions and requested a “prompt response” by Oct. 30. The lawmaker wants to know what measures the FTC is taking to safeguard children’s data and keep them safe from potentially harmful video trends, and he also wants to know what steps are being taken to stop “the development of algorithms that directly promote CCP propaganda.”

“TikTok is built like an indoctrination machine, and its user base is comprised of one of the most impressionable and vulnerable populations: children,” Mr. Risch said. “The nature of TikTok’s application and its content are tailor-made to appeal to younger generations.”

The letter comes amid heightened scrutiny of the app, owned by Beijing-based digital behemoth ByteDance, and its ties to the Chinese communist regime.

Security Concerns

A Forbes study published in June found that some information was housed within China’s borders, despite repeated assertions under oath by TikTok officials that the data of U.S. customers was maintained outside of China.

“While almost every company collects various types of data, TikTok’s substantial size and the Chinese Communist Party’s ability to seize and exploit this data at any time creates the perfect storm for concern,” Risch wrote in his letter.

According to a TikTok press release from earlier this year, the app has more than 150 million American users, or just under half of the country’s population.

According to the lawmaker’s letter, despite the fact that close to 45 percent of Americans use the app, roughly three in five think it poses a national security threat.

“Every social media company uses algorithms to determine what content is visible to users, but using TikTok comes with particularly serious risks. The company censors topics viewed by the  CCP as politically sensitive, denying U.S. citizens access to full information,“ the letter stated. ”Even more worrisome, ByteDance employees in China and CCP officials have access to TikTok’s data, as we know from multiple whistleblowers.”

Mr. Risch’s letter went on to warn about the potential influence over Americans that the app could have, voicing concern that the content could make Americans “sympathetic to China,” citing FBI Director Christopher Wray’s confirmation of concerns that the app could be used to promote the CCP’s policy agenda, including anti-Taiwan sentiments.

Other Concerns About the App

Some senators are worried that the Chinese-owned video-sharing app would swamp the American market with its e-commerce business because of TikTok’s new purchasing platform. ByteDance is rumored to be launching a new program in August to grow TikTok’s e-commerce presence in the United States.

Some reports indicate that TikTok hopes to compete with Temu and Shein, two other Chinese e-commerce platforms, which have had tremendous success in the United States by selling low-priced products created in China straight to customers.

“TikTok will follow in the path blazed by Shein and Temu. That is, it will flood the U.S. market with slave-made goods, bypassing the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act by keeping shipments below the $800 de minimis threshold for customs inspection,” Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) told The Epoch Times.

“This will undermine American businesses, because who can compete with slave labor and duty-free entry? Worse, it will make American citizens complicit in the Chinese Communist Party’s genocide in Xinjiang.”

A number of state governments have banned the app from state-issued or owned devices, with California Senate Bill 74 seeking to do the same.

Nearly 20 states in the union have either banned or put some sort of restriction on the app use for government-controlled devices following testimony before Congress of TikTok’s potential exploitation by Mr. Wray.

Montana went even further, passing a law to completely ban TikTok starting January 2024. The legislation prohibits tech companies, like Apple and Google, from allowing people within the state to download TikTok through their app stores.