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# China’s Communist Regime Takes Financial Stake in Tiktok
- URL: https://goodoil.news/chinas-communist-regime-takes-financial-stake-in-tiktok/
- Published: 2021-08-19T04:30:00.000Z
- Updated: 2021-08-18T05:43:45.000Z
- Author: Guest Post
- Tags: Business, Politics, Technology, World Politics, #wp, #wp-post, #Import 2024-07-17 01:54

**Autumn Johnson**  
[newsbusters.org](https://www.newsbusters.org/blogs/free-speech/autumn-johnson/2021/08/17/chinas-communist-regime-takes-financial-stake-tiktok?ref=goodoil.news)

*Autumn is a practicing attorney licensed in the Commonwealth of Virginia and the District of Columbia. When not working, Autumn enjoys reading, writing, playing video games, and spending time with her cats.*

The Chinese Communist government has taken a [stake](https://www.reuters.com/technology/bytedance-says-china-unit-holds-local-licences-response-media-report-2021-08-16/?ref=goodoil.news) and board seat in ByteDance, TikTok’s parent company.

On April 30, ByteDance [sold](https://www.reuters.com/technology/bytedance-says-china-unit-holds-local-licences-response-media-report-2021-08-16/?ref=goodoil.news) a 1% stake to WangTouZhongWen Technology, a Beijing company owned by three state entities in China.

According to [Reuters](https://www.reuters.com/technology/bytedance-says-china-unit-holds-local-licences-response-media-report-2021-08-16/?ref=goodoil.news), the deal also allows the Chinese government to appoint a board director to ByteDance.

Actor Ashton Kutcher recently expressed [concerns](https://www.theblaze.com/news/ashton-kutcher-tiktok-warning-china?utm%5Fsource=dlvr.it&utm%5Fmedium=twitter) that China is using TikTok to influence the beliefs of American teens.

Kutcher [warned](https://www.theblaze.com/news/ashton-kutcher-tiktok-warning-china?utm%5Fsource=dlvr.it&utm%5Fmedium=twitter) that China uses TikTok to create “an anti-US propaganda” and an “anti-Taiwanese propaganda effort.”

“If I’m China and I want to create a problem in that area of the world, specifically a Naval problem in the South China Sea, I would probably want to utilize TikTok in order to influence the minds of Americans,” he [said](https://www.theblaze.com/news/ashton-kutcher-tiktok-warning-china?utm%5Fsource=dlvr.it&utm%5Fmedium=twitter).

TikTok’s privacy policy currently allows the platform to share [unlimited](https://www.newsbusters.org/blogs/free-speech/autumn-johnson/2021/07/10/ashton-kutcher-warns-parents-against-chinas-tiktok?ref=goodoil.news) amounts of user data with ByteDance.

“We may share all of the information we collect with a parent, subsidiary, or other affiliate of our corporate group,” TikTok’s policy [reads](https://www.tiktok.com/legal/privacy-policy?lang=en&ref=goodoil.news).

“They’ve collected ten of millions of pieces of data on Americans,” said Lewis. “This is big data. In the U.S. they use it for advertising … in China, the state uses it for intelligence purposes,” Jim Lewis, senior vice president of the strategic technologies program at the Center for Strategic & International Studies, a foreign affairs think tank, [told](https://www.cnbc.com/2021/06/25/tiktok-insiders-say-chinese-parent-bytedance-in-control.html?ref=goodoil.news) CNBC.

Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) [reintroduced](https://www.newsbusters.org/blogs/free-speech/kayla-sargent/2021/04/15/tick-tock-hawley-brings-bill-ban-chinese-owned-tiktok?ref=goodoil.news) the [No TikTok on Government Devices Act](https://www.hawley.senate.gov/sites/default/files/2021-04/117th%20Congress%20-%20No%20TikTok%20on%20Government%20Devices%20-%20with%20Sponsors.pdf?ref=goodoil.news) to ban the TikTok app from official federal devices.

Hawley [says](https://www.newsbusters.org/blogs/free-speech/kayla-sargent/2021/04/15/tick-tock-hawley-brings-bill-ban-chinese-owned-tiktok?ref=goodoil.news) TikTok is “a Trojan horse for the Chinese Communist Party that has no place on government devices—or any American devices, for that matter” in a statement. He continued: “TikTok has repeatedly proven itself to be a malicious actor\[,\] but Joe Biden and Big Tech refuse to take the threat of Chinese espionage seriously. It’s time for Congress to act.”

Meanwhile, TikTok [downplays](https://www.newsbusters.org/blogs/free-speech/autumn-johnson/2021/07/10/ashton-kutcher-warns-parents-against-chinas-tiktok?ref=goodoil.news) its data sharing.

“We employ rigorous access controls and a strict approval process overseen by our U.S.-based leadership team, including technologies like encryption and security monitoring to safeguard sensitive user data,” a TikTok spokeswoman [told](https://www.cnbc.com/2021/06/25/tiktok-insiders-say-chinese-parent-bytedance-in-control.html?ref=goodoil.news) CNBC at the time.

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