TikTok blocks Beijing critics, State Department report says

The popular video app TikTok is working with the Chinese government to restrict people critical of Beijing from sharing their views on the platform, according to a report by the State Department’s counter-disinformation office.

The Global Engagement Center stated in a report made public last week that “U.S. government information” — a euphemism from intelligence data — revealed that as of late 2020 the Chinese company that owns TikTok, known as ByteDance, kept internal listings of people blocked from all ByteDance platforms. The blocked users include those advocating for independence for ethnic Uyghurs living in the western Xinjiang region of the country.

“ByteDance directed that specific individuals be added to this list if they were deemed to pose a public sentiment risk, likely to prevent criticism of the [Chinese] government from spreading on ByteDance-owned platforms,” the report by the GEC states. “This example illustrates how the spread of [People’s Republic of China] digital platforms globally creates new opportunities for Beijing to censor views that run counter to its promoted narratives on issues such as Xinjiang.”

A spokesman for ByteDance did not return emails seeking comment on the State Department report.

ByteDance Chief Executive Shou Zi Chew told Congress in March the company does not share data with the Chinese government and that all data on American users is kept in servers located in the United States.

In 2020, then-President Trump issued an executive order banning TikTok and WeChat, another hugely popular Chinese messaging app. The ban, however, was lifted by President Biden after taking office.

Then an omnibus appropriations law in 2022 passed with a provision that bans the use of TikTok on any federal government computer system.

Under Chinese law, all Chinese companies are required to grant access to their data by authorities, including the Ministry of State Security, the main foreign intelligence service, and the Ministry of Public Security, the national police agency.

A partially declassified report by the National Intelligence Council on China’s policy of promoting “digital authoritarianism” stated that TikTok, one of the fastest-growing “uses AI and manual auditing to filter content and strives to present a positive image of China.”

The State Department report is one of the first U.S. government assessments of the controversial application.

TikTok and the party

Private studies by security analysts also detailed activities by ByteDance and TikTok that support the Chinese Communist Party. A research report submitted to the Australian government in March revealed that TikTok is a key part of efforts by Chinese President Xi Jinping to target regime opponents and to implement influence operations to promote Chinese official positions abroad.

While most critics of TikTok point to its potential use by China as a data access and surveillance tool, TikTok is also a key tool for influence and information control by the ruling Chinese Communist Party, critics say.

The Australian report found that “TikTok provides Beijing with the latent capability to ’weaponize’ the platform by suppressing, amplifying and otherwise calibrating narratives in ways that micro-target political constituencies abroad.”

ByteDance launched TikTok in 2017 and acquired a U.S. company called Musical.ly. The purchase coincided with a six-year campaign by Beijing to build controls within ByteDance through Communist Party “public opinion guidance” mechanisms, the report said.

Mr. Xi in 2021 ordered senior party officials during a study session to use special communications methods in targeting foreign audiences with precise messages.

The party mouthpiece People’s Daily reported on the study session that called for China to “allow short video platforms to become ’megaphones’ for telling Chinese stories well and spreading Chinese voices well.”

TikTok was mentioned specifically as an example of short video platforms in state-run Chinese media.

ByteDance also has been linked by the U.S. government to the development of artificial intelligence, a cutting-edge technology that requires collecting masses of data. A report by China’s Tsinghua University in 2018 listed ByteDance as one of four companies engaged in developing AI technology.

The work was being led within ByteDance’s Institute for Technological Strategy Research by Zhang Hongjiang, a former senior researcher at Microsoft and Hewlett-Packard.

Two French researchers, Paul Charon and Jean-Baptiste Jeangene Vilmer, also identified TikTok as a public opinion warfare tool for the Chinese. The two wrote a report for the Institute for Strategic Research, part of the French Ministry for the Armed Forces.

On the use of digital platforms, “Beijing is clearly on a path of conquest,” they stated in the study of Chinese influence operations.

“In May 2020, the Academy of Social Sciences wrote that Beijing should use its platforms – WeChat, Weibo and TikTok – to counter the influence of American platforms – Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube,” Mr. Charon and Mr. Jeangen Vilmer said.

The French report said ByteDance executives acknowledged publicly that all their apps will promote CCP propaganda “down to the level of the algorithm.” The company employs an estimated 20,000 content controllers and 4,000 censors to ensure “socialist core values” are observed in its apps.

Controls over ByteDance products also are directed by the official Cyberspace Administration of China through directives — as many as 100 per day — sent to ByteDance’s Content Quality Center.

Topic of debate

The issue of the Chinese video app surfaced during the Republican presidential debate last week. Technology entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy urged Republicans not to oppose the use of TikTok as a way to reach younger voters, drawing a rebuke from former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley for the comment. Ms. Haley said TikTok, which is banned for use by U.S. government officials, is a national security threat.

“This is the Chinese Communist Party, who is doing espionage,” Ms. Haley said Sunday, referring to TikTok.

During the debate Mr. Ramaswamy urged Republicans not to shun an app with extraordinary reach among younger American voters.

“I have a radical idea for the Republican Party,” he said. “We need to win elections. And part of how we win elections is reaching the next generation of young Americans where they are.”

However, opposition to the use of the Chinese application, which allows users to post and share short videos, remains strong.

In March, senior U.S. intelligence officials told Congress the video software helps the Chinese government capture large amounts of private data from American users that can then be exploited by the Chinese government. FBI Director Christopher Wray told lawmakers that TikTok allows the Chinese government to control personal data of its estimated 150 million American users.

The information could be used in Beijing operations to divide Americans or promote narratives such that as the United States should not defend democratic Taiwan from a Chinese attack, he said.

“This is a tool that is ultimately within the control of the Chinese government — and it, to me, it screams out with national security concerns,” Mr. Wray said March 8.

A day before the testimony, Senate Intelligence Chairman Mark Warner, Virginia Democrat, introduced a bill that would give the secretary of commerce the power to ban technologies used by adversaries to spy on Americans. The bill is aimed at limiting companies like TikTok.

Sen. Marco Rubio, a frequent critic who has promoted legislation to ban TikTok, said lawmakers have a short attention span that has allowed the Chinese-controlled app to continue operating despite a series of scandals, including spying on American journalists, storing Americans’ private data in China, interfering in election and lying to Congress, he said.

“We cannot continue to ignore the risks posed by the Chinese Communist Party controlling an app used by one in three Americans,” said Mr. Rubio, Florida Republican.

Gordon Chang, a China affairs specialist with the Gatestone Institute, said TikTok is a tool by Mr. Xi to “take down” the United States

“The Communist Party has used TikTok to, among other things, glorify drug use, push critical race theory, and amplify Russian disinformation about the war in Ukraine,” Mr. Chang stated in a report for the institute. “The [Chinese Communist Party] does not allow the Chinese people to use the app. TikTok’s twin site in China, Douyin, promotes patriotic themes.”