NSA Cybersecurity Head Calls Chinese-Owned TikTok a ‘Trojan Horse’

A smartphone with a displayed TikTok logo is placed on a computer motherboard in this illustration taken on Feb. 23, 2023. Dado Ruvic/Reuters

The head of the U.S. National Security Agency’s cybersecurity division said that the Chinese-owned application TikTok is China’s “trojan horse” and poses a long-term security threat to Americans, according to Bloomberg.

Instead of only looking at the direct threat of TikTok’s manipulated content, Rob Joyce said that the U.S. government should monitor TikTok’s China-based parent company ByteDance Ltd. to avoid a security incident “five, 10, or 20” years in the future.”

“Why would you bring the Trojan horse inside the fortress?” Joyce said Monday at the Silverado Policy Accelerator Conference in Napa, California. “Why would you bring that capability into the US when the Chinese could manipulate the data we see to either include the things they want to present to our population—divisive material—or remove the things that paint them in a bad light, which they would not like to be exposed to the American people?”

The Epoch Times reached out to TikTok for comment.

TikTok has 150 million monthly users in the United States, raising concerns about Beijing’s strategy in corrupting the youth and sharing its users’ information with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), which rules China.

House Committee Hearing

TikTok CEO Shou Chew appeared before a House Committee on March 23 over the app’s ties to the CCP. Committee Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-Wash.) opened the hearing heavily criticizing TikTok’s ties to the CCP through its parent company ByteDance.

“CCP laws require Chinese companies like ByteDance to spy on their behalf,” Rodgers said. “That means any Chinese company must grant the CCP access and manipulation capabilities as a design feature.”

“TikTok surveils us all, and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is able to use this as a tool to manipulate America as a whole. We do not trust TikTok will ever embrace American values.”

Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-Wash.), chair of the House Energy and Commerce Committee speaks during the hearing with TikTok CEO Shou Chew before the House Energy and Commerce Committee on Capitol Hill on March 23, 2023. Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

Chew tried to distance TikTok from ByteDance without providing any sound argument and failed to convince the lawmakers, as the scheduled ban of the app in U.S. Congress will proceed as planned.

“The House will be moving forward with legislation to protect Americans from the technological tentacles of the Chinese Communist Party,” Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) said on Sunday, March 26.

Several Western governments and institutions have banned TikTok in recent weeks, including the UK parliament, the Dutch and Belgian administrations, and the New Zealand parliament.

TikTok’s Immediate Danger

According to expert and Epoch Times columnist Roger Simon, TikTok’s mind control on American youth is even more serious than the lack of privacy.

TikTok does that via its proprietary algorithm, which presents the most self-destructive trends of our culture to its audience.

“In this way, TikTok is radically increasing the spread of all aspects of what we call ‘woke,’ from transgenderism and hyper-sexuality to a pervasive sense of victimhood and depression unseen in our society probably ever,” Simon argues.

“Drug use and suicide, often closely associated, are way up. There’s a general feeling of hopelessness in our culture, particularly among the young. If you wanted to destroy a country without firing a bullet, what better way could there be than to get them addicted to an app with those inherent values?”

Andrew Thornebrooke and Melanie Sun contributed to this report.