What does EO: 13942 – Addressing the Threat Posed by TikTok… actually do?

Executive Order 13942 will attempt to protect U.S. citizens and government from attempts by the Chinese government to collect data from Americans by making all transactions with ByteDance Ltd. (owner of TikTok) illegal effective September 21st, 2020, unless you apply for a license that would grant an exception.

For more one – two sentence summaries of Donald Trump’s executive orders as described above visit our Donald Trump Executive Order Page.

Commentary

China is a communist country and one of the tenants of communism is that all businesses belong to the government. However, it does appear that in the late 20th century China did start to allow the privatization of some businesses. ByteDance Ltd. is a privately held company; however, “The company has an internal committee of the Chinese Communist Party as well as strategic partnerships with the Ministry of Public Security and Chinese Communist Party-supported ventures in Beijing and Shanghai.^{[11][12][13][14]} “

It is foolish to think that other countries do not and have not (at least) attempted to meddle in U.S. elections or politics. In fact, it is only fair considering the United States’ history of doing the same in other countries across the globe. That being said, any country that allows other governments to influence their citizens with no penalty would not be a government acting in good faith to its citizens.

I do not pretend to understand the Chinese government, but I think it is safe to say that they are at least a little more dishonest with the world than most other governments; they did a wonderful job at keeping their treatment of the Uyghur Muslims a secret, they lied about the coronavirus. China admitted their Three Gorges Dam was showing signs of weakness, finally.

In economics it appears China does not play the game of intellectual property in accordance with Western rules. I say this because of the 60 Minutes report and the cars they “design.” I’m sure those who are more educated on the issue could find more theft of Western companies. Maybe they do not prescribe to the idea of intellectual property. However, if you’re going to be a part of the global market I think you have to play by its rules and the rules are if you take someone else’s intellectual property, it is stealing.

I think all executive orders should be prohibited or at least heavily limited. However, this executive order appears to be fine. If another government is stealing information from Americans to do U.S. citizens harm then I think the U.S. government must take action.

As internet users we must get it into our head that websites are not free, apps are not free, social media is not free. No business can sustain itself by giving things away for free. So yes TikTok is taking your data, but so is Facebook, Google, CNN, etc… The only difference is TikTok may provide data to a country that is borderline hostile (at this point) toward the U.S.

Rating – Meh
Importance – Probably very important or not important at all… who knows.

If any website is free it is because you are the product. Otherwise, expect to be asked for money….. sooo…..

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