Analyst sees TikTok’s role in Chinese cognitive warfare

The Chinese-owned video app TikTok is a major element of what the Chinese military calls “cognitive warfare,” according to a national security expert.

Ian Oxnevad, senior fellow in national security at the National Association of Scholars, stated in a recent report that TikTok serves as “one of [China’s] foremost cognitive weapons.”

The military defines cognitive warfare as activities to alter the attitudes and behaviors of people and populations for political purposes by degrading rationality and changing perceptions of reality.

President Biden in April signed legislation that contains a provision requiring TikTok to divest from its Chinese owner, ByteDance, within a year or face a U.S. ban.

The app is already banned in 18 nations over concerns China’s government is covertly gathering personal data of its users and the propaganda impact of its pro-China content rules.

Last week, TikTok sued the U.S. government over the law, setting off a political battle over efforts to curb Chinese influence operations and protections under U.S. free speech. Mr. Oxnevad stated that the looming legislative death sentence is unlikely to curb TikTok as an enabler of college campus chaos under a new owner.

Army Gen. Paul Nakasone, until recently director of the National Security Agency, has stated that about one-third of American adults get their news from TikTok and 1 in 6 children in the U.S. are regular users. The app is suspected of collecting data that includes user histories and locations as well as biometric data that is shared with ByteDance in China.

Its content has been described as an “AI-powered subversion weapon,” by Vinod Khosla, a major investor in Open-AI. Some of its videos encourage teens to kill themselves, and antisemitism is also said to be promoted on the app.

According to Mr. Oxnevad, ByteDance is also influencing American students by contributing to colleges and universities. The company announced in 2020 that it would donate $10 million to medical scholarships awarded for “diversity, equity and inclusion.”

TikTok also played a role in recent anti-Israel protests, he stated, noting that a recent study found TikTok users are more likely to believe Jewish people are dishonest in business, disloyal to the United States, and have too much power in the media. Forcing the sale of TikTok will not resolve those issues, Mr. Oxnevad said.

“There is a good chance that TikTok’s algorithms, which contain its secret sauce of subversion, would not be included in a forced sale of the app to an American buyer,” he said.

Removing Chinese control will not guarantee that a new TikTok will be better or halt what Mr. Oxnevad said is a program to erode societal cohesion and the mental capacity of young Americans.

“China’s strategy to make America angry and stupid with an app has proven remarkably successful,” he said.

• Contact Bill Gertz on X @BillGertz.