As far as I can tell it's a since, but delusional, attempt to defend national security. They don't like American data going to China, and Chinese algorithms coming for American eyeballs. Which, same, but that's not actually illegal. And it's not clear why they imagine it's dangerous, other than old men yelling ay clouds.
I suspect they're really just afraid that the kids are enjoying something. So it's more like hauling Twisted Sister before Congress to justify their (really innocuous and vapid) rebelliousness.
It's similar to what phones ask the user on behalf of the app.
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/E84WQUJVoAAtPS3.jpg
I don't see what the problem is, imo it is a specific question. Almost no apps access the home wifi network, they connect to a remote server on the wan side of the network going directly through the default gateway/router, knowing nothing of the devices in the lan.
a good argument to support a bad one
yes, congress may well be capricious and incompetent, but that doesn’t make tiktok any less of a colossal security threat, which it appears you’re trying to indicate
On more than one occasion he was asked if he supports the ongoing state-led genocide of the Uyghur population in Xinjiang and he repeatedly refused to give an answer.
Obviously that’s nonsense and he’s most certainly in the pocket of the CCP, but it is fascinating seeing the deceit in real time.
TikTok is a capitalist social media company that certaily deserves a lot of scrutiny, especially considering ties to China.
But if you think Congress did a good job here...then I don't know how we live in such wildly different worlds. Asking that CEO "does TikTok access the home wifi network?" is such an incomplete question. Everyone of us would immediately ask a clarifying question: "do you mean: does tiktok access data on other devices in the network" or "does tiktok monitor traffic within the network". These are legitimate questions, but to ask a completely idiotic question and then not let the man clarify is just embarassing. Same thing with "Have you changed the source code?" WTF does this even mean?? It's as if I'd asked somebody "Have you eaten?", not have you eaten today, or have you ever eaten. Have you eaten. Yes the fucking source code has been changed. It's being changed all the time???
Please...Congress already had an opinion on this before the hearing ever started and congress made sure to ask deliberately unanswerable questions to hit the man with "Yes or no????" as soon as he opened his mouth.
I'm certainly not a fan of TikTok, but if you see this as anything other than the US congress trying to get a unprecedented ban of a foreign competitor, you are being naive. 150 million US americans use TikTok. They are too big, they can't be as easily controlled and most importantly: they make money that belongs to Meta, Google and all our other friendly data monsters.
Don't be silly, this is not about national security, the CCP or anything like that. It's about money, like always.