While the first report detailed the overt threat of TikTok as a weapon of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), this second analysis drills deeper into a more insidious danger: the rot within our own institutions that has allowed this threat to fester. The story of TikTok is not just one of foreign aggression, but of domestic failure, political cowardice, and a legal system that has been twisted to protect the adversary. This is a chronicle of the swamp’s self-preservation at the expense of American security.
The Political Uni-Party and the Propaganda Machine
The most glaring hypocrisy in the fight against TikTok comes from the very politicians who should be our first line of defense. The Republican and Democratic parties, in their lust for votes, have proven themselves to be two wings of the same Uni-Party, willing to engage with the enemy for political gain.
- Biden’s Betrayal: Why in the Hell would a sitting U.S. President use a CCP-controlled application? The “Biden-Harris HQ” TikTok account is a slap in the face to the entire U.S. intelligence community. We are told it is run by campaign aides, not the President himself, which is an irrelevant distinction. The account, with its hundreds of thousands of followers, legitimizes the platform and signals to our enemies that our leaders are not serious about the national security threat. We must ask: was the campaign paid? What data is being collected on the American citizens who follow and interact with this account? It is a staggering display of political malpractice.
- Government-Sponsored Propaganda: The “No TikTok on Government Devices Act,” buried in a massive appropriations bill, was a weak and performative gesture. Why did it require the Office of Management and Budget to “establish deadlines” for removal? The ban should have been instantaneous. The real question is why these apps were on government devices in the first place. A search reveals a shocking list of U.S. agencies that maintained large TikTok accounts, effectively using a CCP platform to conduct government outreach. The TSA, the National Parks Service, and numerous state-level agencies built substantial followings, normalizing the app and handing the CCP a direct pipeline to American citizens under a veneer of officialdom.
- The Apology of Jeff Jackson: Look no further than Rep. Jeff Jackson of North Carolina for a profile in political cowardice. After voting for the ban, he posted a now-infamous “apology video” to his massive TikTok following, explaining why he voted the way he did. This act of appeasing a digital mob, potentially inflated by foreign bots, over his duty to national security is contemptible. How does a representative from North Carolina, not a media hub like LA or NYC, amass such a following? How is follower authenticity or monetization even verified by TikTok? This entire ecosystem stinks of fraud, a problem Apple and Google refuse to address, even as new legislation against fake app store activity is debated.
- The Chinese Embassy in the Halls of Congress: It is a fact that representatives from the Chinese embassy met directly with U.S. congressional staffers to lobby against this bill. This is not normal diplomacy; it is an act of hostile influence. For a foreign adversary to walk the halls of our government and directly pressure our lawmakers is an outrage reminiscent of a spy thriller. This practice, while technically legal, is part of a pattern of corruption that has been allowed to fester in the post-9/11 era, where foreign money and influence have become commonplace in Washington D.C.