With over one billion monthly active users, chances are
that you have heard of the wildly popular TikTok platform that is
now owned and run by the Chinese company ByteDance. Allowing its
users to live-stream anything from their latest lip-syncing battles
of their favorite pop artist's songs to controversial video
content of government protests or operations—TikTok has
understandably caught the attention and ire of governments (and
parents) throughout the world.
This includes the United States government—which recently
opened a national security review of ByteDance due to concerns that
ByteDance may have purchased Musical.ly, the American company that
became TikTok, in November 2017 for largely clandestine purposes.
The U.S. government's concern is not without merit, especially
given that the acquisition of Musical.ly occurred around the same
time as China's 2017 national intelligence law, which contains
sweeping language that requires companies to comply
