EFF Statement on TikTok Ownership Deal

One of the reasons we opposed the TikTok “ban” is that the First Amendment is supposed to protect us from government using its power to manipulate speech. But as predicted, the TikTok “ban” has only resulted in turning over the platform to the allies of a president who seems to have no respect for the First Amendment.

TikTok was never proven to be a current national security problem, so it’s hard to say the sale will alleviate those unproven concerns. And it remains to be seen if the deal places any limits on the new ownership sharing user data with foreign governments or anyone else—the security concern that purportedly justified the forced sale. As for the algorithm, if the concern had been that TikTok could be a conduit for Chinese government propaganda—a concern the Supreme Court declined to even consider—people can now be concerned that TikTok could be a conduit for U.S. government propaganda. An administration official reportedly has said the new TikTok algorithm will be “retrained” with U.S. data to make sure the system is “behaving properly.”