The Chinese ownership of the video app TikTok—targeted by a bill that the House of Representatives passed with a large bipartisan majority—might indicate a severe concern about curbing the influence of foreign states in American public affairs. Part of the argument for requiring the current Chinese owner to sell the app if it continues to operate in the United States is that the Chinese government might pressure the owner to turn over data on TikTok’s American users. However, another argument supporting the bill is that China could use the app not only as an intelligence-gathering tool but also as an instrument for influencing American opinion and politics, including U.S. elections.

So far, no evidence has surfaced that the Chinese regime has exploited its ownership of TikTok for either of these purposes. Whatever threat there may be is still a matter of potential future exploitation by Beijing. However, the possibility of Chinese influence can hardly be dismissed. The U.S. intelligence community, in its most recent unclassified worldwide threat assessment, states that a propaganda arm of the Chinese regime reportedly used individual TikTok accounts to target candidates from both U.S. political parties during the campaign for the 2022 midterm elections.

However, as the House bill faces an uncertain future in the Senate, deliberations on it show less seriousness about curbing foreign influence than a miring of the issue in the sort of partisan and parochial considerations that pollute discussion of so many other problems.

Among the calculations that senators make are, for example, what political blowback might be expected from younger users for whom TikTok is highly popular. Democrats are especially concerned about not only antagonizing that cohort but also losing an important platform from which to reach them.

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, from whom many congressional Republicans take their cues these days, carries parochialism to an extreme in his position on the TikTok issue. Trump previously supported the bill about Chinese divestiture but later reversed his position. The reasons for the reversal evidently include staying in the good graces of billionaire donor Jeff Yass, a major investor in TikTok’s current parent company. Trump also does not wish any social media business from a banned TikTok to go to Meta, led by Mark Zuckerberg, against whom he has a grudge. To the extent Trump is concerned about the minds of social media users getting influenced, he is more worried about........

© The National Interest