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The American intelligence community has issued a warning stating that China’s government utilized the popular video-sharing platform TikTok to influence recent US elections, as revealed in its Monday annual threat assessment.
The Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI), which oversees the US’18 intelligence agencies and issues an annual assessment highlighting significant threats to the nation’s interests globally, claimed that ByteDance-backed TikTok has been influencing people of voting age to dissuade them from voting in a croup.
The significance of this warning is underscored by the fact that it comes during an election year, with the House of Representatives gearing up to vote on legislation aimed at compelling ByteDance, TikTok’s parent company based in China, to divest its stake in the platform. Failure to comply could result in TikTok being banned from app stores in the United States.
Congress is pushing for this legislation due to national security concerns surrounding the Chinese government’s potential access to American user data through TikTok, as well as its ability to conduct influence campaigns via the platform.
According to this year’s report, TikTok accounts allegedly operated by a Chinese propaganda arm targeted candidates from both political parties during the 2022 US midterm election cycle. The report also cautioned that China might attempt to influence the US elections in 2024 to sideline critics of China and exacerbate societal divisions in the United States.
This is not the first time that someone in the US has accused China or Russia of interfering in their elections. China is said to possess enhanced capabilities for operating massive covert influence operations and the dissemination of disinformation.
Other than elections, China is also trying to shape the public discourse in the United States regarding its sovereignty and its claimed regions like Hong Kong, Taiwan, Tibet, and Xinjiang.
The report additionally highlights China’s monitoring of Chinese students studying abroad for dissenting views and its influence on research conducted by US academics and think tank experts.
In a broader context, the report warns of an increasingly fragile global order, strained by countries such as China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea, as well as by regional conflicts, disruptive technologies, and the economic impacts of climate change.
It emphasizes the ongoing competition between authoritarian and democratic systems, which has hindered collaborative approaches to global issues like climate change. Moreover, emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence and biotechnology are expected to exacerbate this competition.
In response to the allegations, a TikTok spokesperson stated that the platform regularly takes action against deceptive behavior, including covert influence networks, and has implemented measures to safeguard its community during elections worldwide.
