ByteDance is beholden to both the US and Chinese governments. The US government also has enormous power to coerce ByteDance (and other tech companies), and right now, ByteDance is under much stronger political pressure from the US than the Chinese government.

ByteDance actually can structure its operations to separate its US and Chinese apps as much as possible, to limit the ability of either government to access data from the other country. It's not a state actor, and is actually trying to avoid coercion from both the US and China.

The US has to get a court order which bytedance can challenge in a court room.

If the CCP requests data they have no choice but to hand it over. There is no way bytedance can structure its operations to prevent the CCP requesting data.

> The US has to get a court order which bytedance can challenge in a court room.

As we've seen, the US is perfectly capable of building up a massive surveillance operation, and of tying the tech companies into that operation, without the involvement of any real court (i.e., something other than a secret rubber-stamp like the FISA court), and indeed without the public even knowing that such a system exists.

The US also exerts other forms of extra-legal pressure on companies. It can and does threaten tech companies to play ball, or else. When WikiLeaks published documents that embarrassed the US government, the US government froze all of their financial accounts, simply by telling the companies involved (e.g., PayPal) to do so. American tech executives know that they can face regulatory action if they say "no" to requests, so they have a very strong incentive to comply with demands to provide data, censor content, and help US government influence operations (see the recent revelations that Twitter worked with the US government on covert influence campaigns using inauthentic accounts).

> There is no way bytedance can structure its operations to prevent the CCP requesting data.

The Chinese government can request whatever it likes, but ByteDance can structure its operations to make those requests impossible or difficult to fulfill, or to make it so any attempt to fulfill such a request will be highly visible. The Europeans have exactly the same problem with regards to the US, which is one of the reasons that GDPR exists.

As I said before, right now, ByteDance faces much stronger political pressures from the US than from China.

However, beyond all this theoretical argumentation about which government exerts more control over ByteDance, the argument that TikTok is a security threat is absurd. It's primarily a platform for little funny videos, dance videos, etc. The motivation for banning TikTok is clearly just part of the larger tech war against China, and the general hysteria that has developed with regards to China in the US. That's why a thread about a tech company misusing user data to try to identify a leak has turned into a discussion about "the CCP."

> ByteDance faces much stronger political pressures from the US than from China.

Of course! Because tiktok should be banned everywhere.

> The Chinese government can request whatever it likes, but ByteDance can structure its operations to make those requests impossible or difficult to fulfill

LOL no it can’t. They would not risk getting thrown in jail for nothing by refusing a request from the CCP.

> American tech executives know that they can face regulatory action if they say "no" to requests, so they have a very strong incentive to comply with demands to provide data, censor content, and help US government influence operations (see the recent revelations that Twitter worked with the US government on covert influence campaigns using inauthentic accounts).

Companies challenge data requests all the time. The fact is you cannot challenge that request with the CCP.

Unsure why you’re hell bent on defending the CCP with whataboutism. Because what the US does isn’t even close to that of China.

> Because what the US does isn’t even close to that of China.

The US actually appears to have a much more extensive global surveillance system than China does. Nothing even remotely comparable to what Snowden revealed has yet come to light about China.

> They would not risk getting thrown in jail for nothing by refusing a request from the CCP.

This is a very cartoonish view of how things in China work. The Chinese government knows that an attempt to leverage a company like TikTok (or Huawei) to spy on foreign countries could backfire and damage Chinese companies abroad. So far, it appears not to have used these companies for spying to any measurable extent. The NSA hacked into Huawei's systems, and found no evidence of spying. British GCHQ regularly audited Huawei's hardware and operations, and never found any evidence of spying.

> The fact is you cannot challenge that request with the CCP.

If the Chinese government requests data from TikTok, an American company, that sits on US-based servers, TikTok actually can challenge that request. US laws will come into play, and it will not be a simple matter to transfer the data (particularly in secret).

> If the Chinese government requests data from TikTok, an American company, that sits on US-based servers, TikTok actually can challenge that request. US laws will come into play, and it will not be a simple matter to transfer the data (particularly in secret).

Lol the CCP doesn’t need to go to tiktok it goes to the parent company to access data. Bytedance. Which we know has infact accessed data from China.

But it’s clear now that you support the CCP so this is a pointless conversation.