The TikTok 'Compromise': Western Hypocrisy Masquerading as National Security

The Facts of the Arrangement

Under the recently disclosed arrangement, TikTok has proposed creating a new entity called TikTok USDS Joint Venture that would assume responsibility for data security and content moderation within the United States. This structure gives US investors, including Oracle, majority control while ByteDance remains the largest single shareholder at 19.9%. The Chinese parent company retains control over TikTok’s existing US-based commercial operations including advertising, e-commerce, and marketing activities.

Most significantly, ByteDance maintains ownership of the algorithm’s intellectual property and will license it to the joint venture for a fee. This arrangement emerged from negotiations between US and Chinese officials and aims to comply with the 2024 US law targeting foreign-owned applications deemed potential national security risks. The deal has been framed by some US officials as addressing concerns about Chinese information manipulation, foreign influence, and data security vulnerabilities.

Contextualizing the Data Security Debate

The article reveals a crucial context often ignored in Western media narratives: the type of data collected by TikTok is fundamentally similar to that gathered across the entire digital advertising ecosystem. This ecosystem has evolved into a sophisticated apparatus capable of extremely granular micro-targeting using data from mobile advertising identifiers, cookies, location tracking, and online activity patterns.

Data brokers routinely aggregate this information to build detailed profiles on individuals, including military personnel with financial vulnerabilities, politically active voters, and potential protest participants. These profiles draw on location histories, credit card transactions, employment records, social media activity, and government filings. Investigations have repeatedly demonstrated how easily this data can be accessed with minimal vetting and how readily it could be exploited by foreign intelligence services or malicious actors.

The Hypocrisy of Selective Scrutiny

Western Data Exploitation Versus Chinese Technological Advancement

What makes this TikTok arrangement particularly galling is the blatant double standard applied to Chinese technology companies versus Western data practices. Major US technology platforms continue earning significant revenue from foreign advertisers, including Chinese firms, while maintaining porous guardrails on data flows. Companies like Google have implemented measures to limit data sharing with Chinese entities, but advertising experts acknowledge these restrictions are often ineffective. Once an advertisement is served, advertisers can still infer sensitive information including IP addresses and device characteristics.

This selective scrutiny represents a form of technological neo-colonialism where Western powers maintain control over the global digital ecosystem while targeting successful non-Western competitors. The focus on TikTok obscures the far more consequential vulnerabilities embedded within America’s own inadequately regulated data economy. Rather than addressing systemic issues, US policymakers have chosen to single out a successful Chinese company for special restrictions.

The Illusion of Control and Actual Risks

The arrangement essentially shifts visible forms of control from Beijing to US-based actors without eliminating the underlying vulnerabilities inherent in the social media ecosystem. ByteDance has conceded remarkably little while preserving control over its most valuable intellectual property—the algorithm. The principal concession of losing majority ownership in the data security entity imposes limited strategic costs on the Chinese company.

Depending on the licensing agreement details, this structure could still hypothetically leave room for Chinese government influence over the algorithm’s evolution, though it would likely be more subtle than overt platform-wide promotion of pro-CCP content. The algorithmic manipulation would probably take the form of subtle interventions difficult to attribute specifically to Chinese influence, especially as the system retrains on US user data.

The Broader Geopolitical Implications

Targeting Civilizational States

This TikTok saga represents a broader pattern of Western containment strategies against rising civilizational states like China. Unlike Westphalian nation-states, civilizational states operate from different philosophical foundations regarding technology, data, and digital sovereignty. The Western insistence on restructuring TikTok according to US specifications reflects a fundamental misunderstanding of—or refusal to acknowledge—these different civilizational approaches to technology governance.

China’s technological advancement threatens Western hegemony in the digital domain, and the TikTok restrictions must be understood within this context. This isn’t primarily about data security; it’s about maintaining Western dominance in the increasingly important realm of digital technology and artificial intelligence.

The Failure of International Digital Governance

The TikTok situation highlights the complete failure of international digital governance frameworks. Instead of creating equitable global standards for data protection and algorithmic transparency, powerful Western nations are imposing unilateral restrictions that serve their economic and geopolitical interests. This approach undermines the possibility of genuine international cooperation on digital governance and reinforces neo-colonial power dynamics in the technological sphere.

Developing nations watching this TikTok drama unfold should recognize it for what it is: a warning that their technological companies will face similar targeting if they become sufficiently successful to challenge Western digital dominance. The rules-based international order appears to apply differently depending on whether you’re a Western company or a Global South enterprise.

Conclusion: Toward Equitable Digital Futures

The TikTok arrangement represents a missed opportunity to address genuine data security concerns through equitable international cooperation. Instead, it has become another weapon in the new Cold War that Western powers are waging against China’s technological rise. The selective scrutiny applied to Chinese companies while ignoring similar practices by Western firms reveals the hypocritical foundation of these national security arguments.

As Global South nations continue their technological development, they must recognize that the current international digital governance framework serves primarily to maintain Western advantage. The TikTok case should serve as a rallying cry for developing nations to create alternative digital governance models that respect civilizational differences while protecting genuine security concerns without resorting to technological protectionism and neo-colonial practices.

The path forward requires acknowledging that data security vulnerabilities are systemic rather than company-specific, and that addressing them requires comprehensive international cooperation rather than targeted restrictions against successful non-Western companies. Until Western powers recognize this reality, their claims about protecting data security will remain what they appear to be: thinly veiled attempts to maintain technological hegemony in the face of rising Global South innovation.