In recent years there has been a lot of talk about banning TikTok in the United States, because it was seen as being controlled by the Communist Party of China. The underground house church in China has been subjected to the weaponization of social media and the impact of the ongoing propaganda campaigns and when Christians saw the same thing happening with TikTok, there was a strong reaction from them and their government representatives.

However, that outcry seems to have stopped.

Why?

Well, it seems that TikTok’s Chinese parent company, ByteDance, has been in negotiations with the Biden Administration to avoid a ban in the United States and according to the first draft of that agreement – the US government doesn’t want to end what the China is doing. They want to replicate it.

The first draft document is nearly 100 pages long and should be pretty disgusting to Christians who have been following this behavior in China.

The draft agreement would give the US government the authority to:

• Give US government source code via cybersecurity source code inspector
• Influence what users can see and not see on their feed
• Examine TikTok’s records – including records of users
• Influence or block changes to the app’s U.S. terms of service, moderation policies and privacy policy
• Influence the hiring of any executive involved in leading TikTok’s security

According to Ama Adams, a managing partner and CFIUS expert at Ropes & Gray, it seems some of the language looks similar to what what we would expect to see from Communist China, saying “setting up a structure that has allegiance to the United States — I’ve never seen language, per se, to that extent.”

History has taught us that it is perhaps never a good idea for governments to be given the power to influence what Christians see, hear, think, and say.