NewsGuard Reality Check: “The debate in Washington about what to do about TikTok is not about hypothetical harms. NewsGuard research over the years has shone a harsh light on TikTok as a misinformation superspreader. In one report, NewsGuard analysts mimicked how TikTok users interact with the video platform by analyzing 540 TikTok results based on reviewing the top 20 results from 27 searches on topics in the news. Of the search results, NewsGuard found that 105 videos, 19.4 percent, contained false or misleading claims. Our conclusion: “Does mugwort induce abortion? Can and should I make hydroxychloroquine in my kitchen? Was the 2020 election stolen? Did Ukrainians fake the civilian deaths in Bucha? If you search on TikTok, you might think the answers to these questions are all, ‘Yes.’”  No Western brand is safe: Another report showed that TikTok has become a superspreader of misinformation about brands and companies. NewsGuard analysts searched nine major brands – Anheuser-Busch, Balenciaga, Barilla, Bud Light, Chick-fil-A, Heineken, Hobby Lobby, Kohl’s, and Target – and discovered that videos that shared misinformation about these brands were cumulatively viewed 57 million times over a one-week period, with nearly half of the views being of videos that used AI-generated or otherwise manipulated media to advance misinformation. In total, NewsGuard found that 14 percent of the videos about these brands contained false, misleading, or unsubstantiated claims targeting the brands themselves How’s that for undermining confidence in the flow of trusted information needed for free markets? Misinformation is at the heart of the national security arguments, as summarized by Ian Bremmer of Eurasia Group:

• TikTok parent company ByteDance answers to the CCP
• Beijing can weaponize Americans’ data
• It’s in Xi Jinping’s best interest to control the algorithm … and further polarize the American public

The Economist reminds us that only Americans can own U.S. broadcasters and that social media controlled by a hostile government is more insidious than control of older media. “A newspaper’s editorial line can be seen in black and white; by contrast, every TikTok user gets a different feed, and the company does not provide adequate tools to examine its output in aggregate,” making it impossible to know “whether TikTok’s algorithm is responding to users’ preferences, or to manipulation from Beijing.” China is quickly catching up to the Russians in perfecting the art of disinformation. For example, government-run China Daily published a video falsely claiming that the U.S. operates a bioweapons lab in Kazakhstan with the goal of infecting camels with a deadly virus that the camels would spread to China when they migrate…”

See also H.R.7520 – Protecting Americans’ Data from Foreign Adversaries Act of 2024