TikTokTrouble

Maybe the FBI has finally gotten around to reading Subversive Addiction.

On November 15, 2022, FBI Director Christopher Wray testified in a hearing of the House of Representatives Homeland Security Committee, saying, in part, “We do have national security concerns at least from the FBI’s end about TikTok. They include the possibility that the Chinese government could use it to control data collection on millions of users. Or control the recommendation algorithm, which could be used for influence operations if they so chose. Or to control software on millions of devices, which gives it opportunity to potentially technically compromise personal devices.”

On March 15, 2021 (or thereabouts, because the book launch, as chronicled in this blog, was botched by yours truly), author Christopher Rosow wrote about his fictional social media network, Trampoline.Live, “Trampoline is very deliberately creating an addiction, so that you keep your eyes glued to the screen while in the background, it collects a vast amount of information about you.”

How ’bout this: substitute my Trampoline for TikTok, and bam, same outcome.

And yes, I do get the irony of me cross-posting on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, all of which collect data just like TikTok. So yes, I’m being tracked by Meta and Elon Musk. And you are, too.

Source: CNBC for the quote, and Fox News, Bloomberg, and The Hill for verification.