Why Trump and Harris Must Abandon the CCP’s Digital Playground

Both the Trump and Harris campaigns operate TikTok accounts, drawn by the platform’s immense reach and influence among younger voters. With over 170 million U.S. users, its political outreach capabilities are undeniable. However, this strategic decision legitimizes a digital weapon of the Chinese Communist Party in its war against America’s future. Beneath TikTok’s veneer of viral dances and trending challenges, it conceals a sophisticated apparatus for data harvesting, psychological manipulation, and potential election interference – a reality that demands immediate, decisive action.

What threats does TikTok pose?

The threat posed by TikTok is multifaceted and alarming. First, it’s a digital drug targeting our children. The European Union recently forced TikTok to remove its rewards program in TikTok Lite, citing its “addictive effect” that could harm children. This program, which awards points for watching and liking videos, exploits the brain’s reward system, creating a cycle of addiction that keeps users, especially young ones, glued to their screens.

The dangers extend beyond addiction. TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, is legally obligated under China’s National Intelligence Law to assist the CCP in intelligence gathering. This means troves of American users’ data – biometric information, location data, browsing histories, and contacts – are likely available to the Chinese government.

The U.S. government has taken notice. In a landmark lawsuit, the Department of Justice accused TikTok of illegally collecting data on children under 13 without parental consent. The suit alleges that TikTok knowingly allowed millions of underage users to create accounts, failed to honor parents’ deletion requests, and even collected information on children using its supposedly restricted “Kids Mode.”

These privacy violations aren’t mere oversights – they’re part of a calculated strategy to harvest as much data as possible from America’s most vulnerable citizens. The CCP sees TikTok as a way to extend its influence deep into American society, a launch pad for cultural infiltration and cognitive manipulation on an unprecedented scale.

From antisemitism to espionage against the United States

The national security implications are dire. As we’ve written before, TikTok has pushed antisemitic material, erased Israel from maps, and promoted Hamas propaganda. It has spread videos glorifying Osama bin Laden and justifying the 9/11 attacks. The app has become a conduit for foreign disinformation campaigns, capable of swaying public opinion and potentially influencing election outcomes.

Moreover, TikTok’s technological capabilities are expanding rapidly. Reports indicate that ByteDance is secretly using OpenAI’s technology to develop its own large language model, potentially in violation of OpenAI’s terms of service. This development could lead to even more sophisticated manipulation techniques in the future (that 25% of a leading American tech company’s revenue comes from giving the CCP access to tens of millions of American citizens’ and companies’ data deserves its own article).

The threat is so severe that both the House and Senate have acted – first, with an overwhelmingly bipartisan vote in Congress and President Biden signing a bill forcing the company to sell TikTok or face a ban in 2025. Then the House removed TikTok from all managed devices. A bipartisan group of over 50 lawmakers and 21 state attorneys general has also backed the DOJ in ByteDance’s lawsuit challenging the ban (the D.C. Circuit just heard oral arguments in this case, wherein a panel of Trump, Obama, and Reagan-appointed judges all expressed skepticism of ByteDance’s claims).

Both Presidential campaigns remain vulnerable as long as they remain subscribed

In a related vein, the DOJ just charged three members of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps – a designated foreign terrorist organization – of hacking and trying to undermine the Trump campaign. Imagine what a more technologically sophisticated entity like the CCP could do if the right situation arose.

Despite all of this, both presidential campaigns are still using TikTok, allowing themselves to be digitally vulnerable. It is imperative that they delete their accounts immediately. In doing so, Trump would show real leadership and a return to the popular and correct national security posture regarding the CCP from his first term, and Harris would signal that her potential administration would work to protect our democracy from manipulation by foreign actors.

The time for half-measures has passed. We must act decisively to protect our children, our data, and our national security. Banning TikTok isn’t about stifling innovation or free speech – it’s about safeguarding the very foundations of our democracy from a hostile foreign power.

The battle for the future of our nation is being waged not just in voting booths and legislative chambers, but in the palm of every American’s hand. By expelling TikTok, we’d take a crucial step toward securing that future for generations to come. We can either act now to protect our sovereignty in the digital age or risk losing it forever to those who seek to exploit our openness and undermine our values.

This article was originally published by RealClearPolitics and made available via RealClearWire.